Photograph by Alan Manson Wakkerstroom, February this year. As we were driving into town that particular morning, there were so many of these falcons sitting on the telephone lines next to the road that we had to stop and look. They were unfamiliar to us. Eastern Red-footed Falcon was the description our bird book gave us. Nice. The insert in the wildlife program on SABC 2 about a month ago had more information. The Amur Falcon, formerly called the Eastern Red-footed Falcon, is one of the very small raptors, weighing the equivalent of about four slices of bread. But ironically they also have one of the longest migration routes of any bird of prey, travelling the 25 000 km from their breeding grounds in Northern China and Southern Siberia to our summer grasslands in South Africa. In the process they have to run the gauntlet of mass killings by nets in Nagaland in India and long uninterrupted crossings over the Indian Ocean. Source: avibirds.com We thought w...
The Restory is a Retreat Centre nestled against Tafelkop, a singular mountain head near Wakkerstroom, South Africa. Here we live a simple life as contemplatives. It is a place of re-connection: with ourselves, people, Nature, Silence and Creativity. Our retreats are aimed at this. Our conversations, writing and art centre around the univocity of life. We need a place that reminds us that we are all one. The Restory hopes to be such a place and space.