14/07/2026
Ashburton Aloe Festival Final Thank You 2026!
To our venue hosts: Pandora Long, Sherwin Long & Andrea Kotze for hosting Galago Farm (Venue B), Jacques & Kerry Nel and Family hosts of Mawingo Farm (Venue C), Keith Brown and Friends, hosts of Impala Bend (Venue D) and Peter & Heather Poulsen and the Rocky Wonder Aloe Nursery Team (Venue E). These venues act as gateways into the walks, talks and activities that the Aloe Fest offers each year, we are very grateful for the time, effort and expense that goes into preparing the farms, parking, trails etc for visitors each year and for the contributions venues make towards the anti-poaching fund. A thank you to Wayne Giels of Ashburton Training Centre for permission to host two walks at Ashburton Training Centre (Venue A).
To our Speakers & Leaders: Wow, what can we say! We value the amazing knowledge, expertise, energy and connections each one of you bring forward at Aloe Fest time and would like you all to know how many visitors share with us and how inspirational your talks, walks and activities are. Here lies the heart of the Aloe Fest, a time to share our connection to and love of nature with others and in so doing inspire one another, build resilience and hope that radiates outward. Whether you travel from near or from far, we thank you for your input and really value your presence. We hope you were well taken care of and that you too, had valuable insights to take away with you.
Thanks go to Tayla van Rees and Simon Joubert of Birdlife eThekwini for their birdwalk, “Sounds of the Bushveld”; John Roff for his geology safari “Story in the Stones”; Nikki Brighton for two talks/walks; “Exploring edible weeds & Rewild your World: Edible Weeds and Wild Ideas”; Lance Jeffery and Rebecca Rasmussen, thank you for bringing two live snake and reptile shows to Aloe Fest this year, we are so appreciative of your support. Jacques Nel, thank you for leading “Life at Mawingo” a trail to the donga on both days. Eilisha Goosen and Freeme for bringing us the story of “The magic of Nandi: a Wattle Crane Experience”. Algie Coleman, thank you so much for offering your walk “Spoor, Bush Skills and Survival” Ben Hoffman & Jacqui Gray, thank you for bringing your beautiful owls for visitors to experience and for sharing “After Dark: The Lives of Africa’s Owls”, we regret the date muddle in the advert.
Thank you, Shirley Bradshaw of Functional Soaps for your interesting demo, “The Art & Craft of Natural Soap Making” and Howard Bradshaw for engaging visitors with stories around the campfire reading Anthony Oslow’s, Mzanzi Zen. Thank you to Bobby Poulsen for ongoing anti-poaching work in the LMVC and for sharing a glimpse of this work with visitors in your presentation, “Drone Wildlife and Poaching Patrols: Combatting Poaching in the LMVC with Unmanned Aviation” We would also like to thank those presenting “Dogs making a difference: All about K9’s” Ralton Dickason of GWD K9 and Anthony and Cally Blignaut of Agri Executive, as well as Algie Coleman of Sceptre Anti-poaching K9 Services for facilitating this activity.
Ocky Ockert Kruger thank you for bringing your art to share with visitors and for manning the inspiring “Paint for Peace” collective canvas. To the Snare Aware Team, you all deserve huge thanks for sharing your KZN wide work with visitors AND conducting a snare sweep over the area during the Festival! Andrew Fleming, your early morning talk around the fire was again a highlight, thanks to the KZN Bee Farmers Association members for ongoing support. Dr David Johnson and Sally Johnson we so valued your presence and tree ID talk again this year, thank you for spending the day with us. Rynart Bezuidenhout, we are so grateful for your presentation, “Narina Trogon” jewel of the Lower Mpushini Valley and to Dr Robert Graham, for leading an amazing bird walk and for finding this beautiful bird, amongst others, for our AF birders to see! Celeste Roussouw, your talk “Living Heritage in the Drakensberg: Natural places charged with spiritual, ritual and legendary significance” was fascinating and so well received, thank you.
Stealing the hearts of so many at the Fest we would like to thank the Young Dancers of the KwaMashu School of Dance Theatre and their Champion’s, and especially KMSDT Director, Vusi Makanya for choreographing the moving piece, “FOREST: The breath of the Earth.”
It was a wonderful Festival with so many contributions both conservation and culture. We would like to thank Helen Vermaak for her special touch on the piano, presenting her program “What a wonderful world” for visitors at Galago. And even with all this going on and more, UKZN PHD Ecological Science candidate, Aphiwe Matendaba presented her talk to an interested group of visitors, “Monitoring Rivers from the Sky: Using Drones to Understand Water Quality and River Health.” Thank you Aphiwe!
Festival founder and organiser, Pandora Schep Long joined the speakers this year to share “Mtini’s Journey: The Story of an Otter, Community Conservation and a Protected Environment” with visitors, to stand in for Debbie de Wit and join Hardlife for two “Fun facts nature walk” at ATC and to present a watercolour demonstration, “Magnificent Aloes”.
We would like to thank Gael Whiteley who made a valuable contribution baking and serving the delicious hospitality for the speakers and helpers at Galago Farm and to all the venue hosts for Speaker hospitality.
Thanks goes to the LMVC anti-poaching team and especially Lucky Makuyana for his awesome anti-poaching displays at Impala Bend and Galago (we need to post what the stack of nearly 10 years of snare removal looks like - imagine how many animals have been saved from a gruesome death!) Lucky, thank you for engaging with visitors at your stand and co-leading two walks on ATC (Venue A).
Thanks also goes to Keith Brown for sharing your special connection with the wildlife that inhabits your farm with visitors during Wildlife feeding hour” and together with the anti-poaching team, residents at Impala Bend and landowners in the vicinity take the brunt of protecting the wildlife along the ridge year round.
Festival Market Stalls: This year saw an integration of market stalls into the four venues and we would like to thank all those who participated, bringing your special wares and products and adding to the success of the fundraiser by contributing stand fees and percentage of takings. Thanks to Cindy Boyd for helping to organise this at Impala Bend.
Thanks to our Raffle Sponsors: Each year our raffle attracts a number of entries and helps swell the anti-poaching coffer. A huge thank you to those who donated prizes this year including Hewlett & Mary-Ann Fanner of Equestre BnB who kindly donated first prize of a weekend away for a lucky couple at Equestre BnB valued at R3 500 and won by Wilma Wiid. Thanks to Pandora Schep – Art for the Earth for donating second prize of an original water colour painting to the value of R2 500 won by Nick Gordon. A huge thank you to Peter & Heather Poulsen of Rocky Wonder Aloe Nursery for donating third prize, a selection of Aloes worth R500 won by Glenda Patterson. Thanks to Nick May of Top Rock Minerals and Gemstones for donating fourth prize, a beautiful crystal worth R800 and won by Ruan Swegelaar. Thanks to Bluff Meat Supply, courtesy of Mark Lederle who donated a R500 biltong hamper. Sixth prize of R300 selection of Aloes was also donated by Pete & Heather Poulsen and won by Miresha Naidoo. Thank you! Seventh Prize was kindly donated by Sherwin Long and Andrea Kotze of An3a Gifts, a custom-made Woodcut Lazer Gift to the value of R200 was won by Aiden Harris. Lastly but not least, eighth prize of a Natural Soap Product Hamper to the value of R100 was donated by Shirley Bradshaw and won by Avis Nel. Thank you Shirley.
Huge thanks goes to our Event Sponsor: Afrimat, Pietermaritzburg Quarry have sponsored the key components of our Festival, Media & Marketing, Signage and Printing for the second year in a row. This goes hand in hand with a committed effort to assist in other ways. Thanks go to Quarry manager, Mike Gates for ensuring the road verges are tidy, watering the road to prevent dust over the Festival weekend and providing bottled water for visitors free of charge. We thank Afrimat for showing that they are part of our community and that they form a part of our anti-poaching fundraising efforts.
A huge thank you to our Media Sponsors: Thanks to The SUN Media Group for being our media partner for the past number of years and for consistently sharing our Festival news with readers. Thank you Ursula Nietzel for facilitating this. Thanks too to all our other media and social media supporters for your ongoing support in sharing our event and connecting nature lovers with our Festival. We would not be able to reach the public without your support!
Design of Aloe Festival Marketing Material: A key thank you goes to Candice Jones for her generosity in time and creativity in re-designing the Ashburton Aloe Festival marketing material and program layout. This forms an amazing contribution to the ongoing look and feel, an important part of the success of the Aloe Fest.
KwaMashu School of Dance Theatre Group Transport Sponsor: We would like to thank Victor Sithebe of Malabasi Transport Logisitics for sponsoring the KMSDT’s transport from KwaMashu. The young members of KMSDT were delighted to both experience the Festival activities like the Snake Show and Dog Demo, and to perform at two of the venues again this year. Thank you so much Victor Sithebe for facilitating this valuable youth contribution to both environmental education and culture for both the young people and their champion’s and visitors to the Festival. It is much appreciated.
Contributions to LMVC Full time Game-guard: Over the past nine years out anti-poaching efforts have been built around the activities of our fulltime game guard, Lucky Makuyana, aka Hardlife and the valuable work he does of removing snares and monitoring wildlife and assisting with rescues in the LMVC. Hardlife’ salary, quad fuel and upkeep has been funded by the Ashburton Aloe Festival and for the past few years now fully funded by Hollywood Bets Brand, Goldcircle and landowners. A huge thank you for this ongoing and concerted commitment.
Local landowners: A huge thank you to the core group of landowners on the LMVC Poaching response group responding to daily incidents (including over Aloe Festival weekend) and the committed anti-poaching conservationists and Sceptre K9 services who continue to commit time and effort to combat poaching activities in the LMVC. Thank you too to those landowners who helped clean the road, take out alien invasive species, put up signage, share event information and support in many other ways.
Visitors: A huge thank you to the over 800 visitors that attended the 2026 20th Birthday Celebration of the Ashburton Aloe Festival for being the awesome nature lovers, community conservationists and biodiversity supporters that you area. We are grateful for all your positive comments, enthusiasm and energy. We draw on this through the year knowing that this is collective collaborative work and together we can really make a difference to protecting the beautiful biodiverse heritage that is our unique part of KZN.
Funds raised: We are so excited to announce that we have surpassed our 40k fundraising target and in total have raised R47 952,77 through this year’s Ashburton Aloe Festival ticket sales, raffle and venue contributions. For the period Aug 26 – Aug 27 we will be allocating R42 000 to dedicated K9 anti-poaching services for the forthcoming year, R4 000 to upgrading anti-poaching signage and the balance to servicing the Quadbike.
Coord, logistics and support: As founder and coordinator of the Festival, LMVC Chairperson, Pandora Long takes the responsibility for bringing the event together successfully, however this is always supported by so many unseen hands, hearts and help. This year particular thanks go to Brad Pascoe and Ashlyn Group for assistance with keeping Ashburton Green & Clean and cleaning Pope-Ellis Drive for the event, to the LMVC committee and our treasurer Mary-Ann Fanner for added workload, to Sherwin Long for unfailing logistical support prior and over the event and to Heather Poulsen for assisting with visitor enquiries and support.
We look forward to opening our FB PAGE https://www.facebook.com/ashburtonaloefestival/ for the Ashburton Aloe Festival around April next year. We may share events in the valley from time to time and hope to keep in contact and see you again next year! For Ashburton Aloe Festival enquiries: Pandora 072 6928124 or Heather 083 665 8010.
