On a beautiful sunny morning while cruising up the Keurbooms River with four guests from England, we witnessed another astonishing event. What at first from a distance was thought to be a Little Grebe swimming, turned out to be a Kynsna Turaco swimming ten meters from the shore line. There was an Egyptian Goose blocking its freedom from a watery grave, and to add to its woes he was being harried from above by a Forest Buzzard. At this point we decided to rescue the Knysna Lourie (Tauraco) from certain death. With a little maneuvering of the Keurbooms River Ferry we were able to use a fishing net to retrieve this idol of the garden route. Once on board we wrapped the Knysna Lourie in a towel. I was quite amazed that the bird was not as water logged as i thought as it had been swimming for at least ten minutes and let me add quite a powerful swimmer.
Around fifteen minutes later he had dried out enough to remove itself from the sanctuary of the towel to hop around the ferry and make its way to sit on the side of the boat. The Knysna Lourie is not a great master of flight so we made our way to the shore line, so as to give it a chance to jump to land . Five minutes later at its own pace the Knysna Lourie left the ferry back to land. With great thanks to our four English guests who helped in this experience of humans and nature coming together what a memorable Keurbooms River Ferry Tour, this will be embellished in my memories for ever.