 | Freelance Guide Reflections Eco-Reserve, Wilderness Great Guide since 01/10 Nationality: South African |
Location: Southern Africa | South Africa Themes: travel | tour guide, safari guide | |
The Garden Route
GREAT GUIDE
Our Great Guides are passionate, knowledgeable, inspiring people invited to publish on the site.
TIM CARR : The Garden Route
Introduction to the Garden Route [audio]
meet Tim Carr
Tim is passionate about the environment and its protection
Tim shunned the trodden path to university. Instead, he offered himself as a volunteer skivvy at Phinda safari reserve. Learning from the outstanding ecologists at the reserve, and with unlimited enthusiasm, Tim grew to become one of the most respected private safari guides in southern Africa.
Tim now lives near Wilderness on the beautiful stretch of South African coastline known as the ‘Garden Route'. This is a region of mountains, rivers, lagoons, forests and dunes that is scenically spectacular and contains tremendous biodiversity.
Beaches, forest, hills and lagoons characterise the Garden Route
His love of the environment really shone through when he guided us on a walk in the forests enthusing about nature from mushrooms to giant yellowwoods to rare birds. He has unbounded energy; give him half a chance and he will have you snorkeling in rock pools as the sun rises. As a guide, he brings the Garden Route alive.
What is even more impressive about Tim is that he walks the talk. The Garden Route is under constant threat from industry and over-development (see our story Eden to Addo). Tim owns a large area of land on a lake frontage near Wilderness. He has returned this land to nature rather than retiring on the profits from forestry or development.
Tim is determined to keep nature natural and 'Reflections Eco-Reserve' is a model in conservation. Tim has built four spacious wooden guest-homes on the reserve. They are off-grid and use underground and filtered rainwater. Each is powered by a combination of wind and solar.
Tim is also a soldier in the fight to keep what remains pristine on the Garden Route from relentless development. He successfully opposed a golf development that would have taken 5 million litres of water each day out of a bird reserve, and is now fighting a proposal to mine sand dunes. His fight for nature reminds us of the determined commitment to conservation of other guides in South Africa, including Sean Privett and Chris Fallows.
Author: Roddy Bray
Date: 15 Jan 2010
Location: Southern Africa | South Africa
Themes: natural world, travel | safari guide, conservation, tour guide, routes and cities
You need to become a member of GreatGuides to post comments.