252
Art # 252
“THOSE PIGEONS ARE MY PETS”
A belated one penguin
Text by Stefan
Rust
Photos by
Astrid Mendel, Diemo Jaenchen, Frank Fischer und Stefan Rust
2014
(In
terms of the Geneva Convention the copyright of these texts belongs to Stefan
Rust)
Impressed by
the bird life around Conny’s Restaurant, on the road that goes past Klein Aub,
BirdsConTour decided to reward the owner Conny (Catherine van Heerden) for her
support in bird conservation in her periphery.
Conny (Catherine van Heerden) Diemo Jaenchen
With the last lunch stopover at Conny’s restaurant on the 2nd
of March, Conny told the guests about her life. Oversea guests were always
fascinated of hearing about people’s life living in such solitude. Originally
she and her husband started this business as a fish & chips shop in 1978.
It then developed into a general dealer, the only one in the area, and in 1987,
after the copper mine in Klein Aub closed down, the general dealer couldn’t
survive. What well survived until today is the restaurant. Even after her
husband passed away, Conny continued with serving homemade meals, cookies and a
cup of tea or coffee to travelers, because that is what she promised her
husband.
Stefan
Rust Frank Fischer
After telling her history, she pointed to the ceiling of the
veranda, where a pair of Speckled Pigeon had their nest with chicks and said:
“Those pigeons are my pets”. She said that she cares for the birds around her
restaurant because she enjoys watching and listening to them. The guests were
impressed and took photos of the pigeon chicks.
Just when BirdsConTour kicked off with another group of
guests down to Sossusvlei, intending to stop over for lunch at Conny’s and
rewarding her with a one penguin-rated Bird & Birder friendly Award, sad
news reached that Conny died in a car crash.
Astrid
Mendel
Her daughter will take over the Conny’s Restaurant and
BirdsConTour handed over Conny’s Bird & Birder Friendly Award to her to
preserve the memory of Conny’s efforts in bird conservation.
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