Plumstead resident dives in for community garden

Plumstead resident Kerneels Brümmer took on five 1.6km swims at iconic Cape Peninsula locations on Saturday, May 24, to raise funds for the upkeep and beautification of the Gabriel Road community garden. 

The annual campaign, called the Beautiful 5, is in its second year running and has set an ambitious goal of raising R50 000 on their GivenGain page this year. 

Mr Brümmer, with a crew of 15 intrepid swimmers, began at Long Beach in Simon’s Town at 8am, followed by Miller’s Point, Kalk Bay, and Hout Bay, before finishing with a sunset swim at Oudekraal Beach just before 6pm.

“It's always beautiful swimming as the sun comes up at Simons Town,” says Mr Brümmer, a Gabriel Road Area Project Association (GRAPA) exco member.

“However, due to the Tokai fires, we couldn't swim at Silvermine Dam this year. So we changed it up to Miller's Point, which was probably the most beautiful swim of the day.

“Some of the people swam slower, cruising amongst the kelp forests, because it was so beautiful to dive down and check out some of the sea life there. So we did a mild swim at Miller's Point. After the swim, people went down a little water slide. We were just having a lot of fun.

“At the last swim, we started at around five o'clock at Oudekraal, swam across the Twelve Apostles and came out at Cosy Bay as the sun went down and took some beautiful pictures on the beach.”

As gruelling as swimming a total of 7.5km in a single day may sound, Mr Brümmer says that if you can swim through one leg without feeling “broken,” you can push through the other four. 

While some people took the swim quite seriously and trained, he adds that with coffee, snacks, and 90-minute breaks between swims, completing all five is surprisingly achievable.

“You do have rest in between. When you start your second mile and your third one, you're still feeling good. Your fourth one, you start feeling a bit lame, but you know, the excitement just gets you going. By the fifth mile, it's the last one and then you just do it.”

With running a deli and being a tour guide, Mr Brümmer isn't able to be as hands-on with Grapa as he would like, so fundraising is something special to him and it is always fun.

The Plumstead Civic Association turned a hot spot for illegal dumping and vagrancy on the corner of Gabriel and Bardia roads into a thriving community garden that hosts a weekly and bigger month-end community farmers’ market.

Elaine Rousseau, Grapa director and head of their community vegetable garden, says once a week the community is able to buy fresh organic vegetables that are harvested in front of you at an affordable price.

“While ongoing fundraisers, like lucky draw competitions, have brought in valuable funds, cashflow is needed to fund daily expenses of running the garden,” Ms Rousseau said.

“Due to the low selling prices we do require extra funds to finance salaries, repairs, electricity. In addition to the financing of upcoming projects, including a Wendy house for equipment to be stored, the completion of the potting /seeding shed with shelving, and the updating of some of the garden’s irrigation."

In future, the community garden hopes to offer guidance and training to other potential organic gardens and eventually establish a feeder garden to supply their market, Ms Rousseau said.

“Residents are encouraged to get involved – whether by volunteering at Saturday markets, helping with gardening tasks, making monthly or annual donations, or supporting greening efforts around the GRAPA garden through tree planting and reporting illegal dumping,” Ms Rousseau said.

Fundraising is open until at least the end of the month, to learn more about Grapa visit their website: https://www.grapa.org.za/