December 9, 2025 • 18 mins
Pippa Hudson speaks to Pippa Haarhof, manager of the West Coast Fossil Park, about the park, which offers a rare chance to step into an ancient landscape and see how dramatically our environment has changed over millennia.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now this week in Wonder the World, we're not only
traveling in kilometers, we're also traveling back in time, way
way back in time, because we are taking you on
a visit to the West Coast Fossil Park to look
at South Africa through a different lens, the lens of
what it looked like millions of years ago. The park
is located about ninety minutes drive from the city up
(00:21):
the West Coast, of course, and it is home to
one of the world's richest fossil deposits. The remains of
animals have been found there which roamed this region five
million years ago, and they include everything from giant, short
necked giraffes to saber toothed cats to the ancestors of
modern elephants and hippos. This park offers a rare chance
to step into an ancient landscape and contemplate the remains
(00:44):
of the past and think about how dramatically our environment
has shifted over the millennia. Now to guide us through
this fascinating window into the past, it's a great pleasure
to have with us by a zoom. Pepahrhoff, who is
manager of the West Coast Fossil Park and Peppa, it's
great to have you on the show today.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Welcome, Thanks so much. It's a wonderful to have this opportunity.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Thank you our great pleasure to have you with us,
and thanks for opening our eyes to this. I have
to start by saying, unfortunately I have never visited the park,
so I am coming to this as a first time visitor,
just like many listeners will be. PIPA. What makes the
West Coast Fossil Park such a unique and important site?
Can we talk about the sort of geographical and historical
context before we talk about what is there today?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, so it is one of the richest fossil sites
of this age. You mentioned it average age of five
million years in the world, so it's one of the
most one of the richest fossil sites in the world
for that age. And what it has that is really
advantageous is that it's very accessible to the public by
(01:56):
the public because you know, it's not it's only one
hundred and twenty kilometers from Cape Town. And also very importantly,
it's part of the school curriculum, so we present activities
that you know that helped teachers what they would normally
(02:19):
teach in the classroom, bring their children to see the
real thing. Because what we did when we opened the
park in nineteen ninety eight we left the big bones.
You mentioned that animal agiant. It's a short nick longhound
giraffe called Asiva there and it's got huge bones. And
(02:40):
we left those bones in the ground in the particular
dig site that we opened up then, specifically for our
visitors to see the bones in the ground exactly as
they were buried five million years ago. So you know,
there are not many places you can go to see that.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You remarkable opportunity and as you said, just an out
doorstep outside of Cape Town. What fascinates me so about
your story is how these fossils were discovered, because I
understand that in fact, this entire discovery and the site
and the existence today of the Fossil Park owes its
existence to mining activity as far back as the nineteen fifties.
Is that correct? Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Correct, So they started mining actually in nineteen forty two,
around about that time full phosphate, which has multiple uses,
but the primary uses for fertilizer, and I think in
the beginning fossils were found, but they weren't brought to
(03:42):
the notice of any researchers. So the first scientific paper
was only published in nineteen fifty eight, but thereafter you know,
well over one hundred are probably close to two hundred
publications now from people from different parts of the world
because it's such a rich site. You know, there's so
(04:06):
many different animals, and we tend to specialize when we
do our research, so you'll get bird specialists, mammal specialists
and so on. And it's a fairly small work global community,
and we get to know who's an expert in which
(04:27):
field within paleontology, and so we end up working with
people from all over the world. And yeah, so it's
and it's a favored site because the fossils are so
well preserved and although a lot we're destroyed during due
to the mining process, had it not been for the mind,
(04:51):
we think the site wouldn't have been discovered because the
bulk of the fossils are buried, you know, ten fifteen
twenty meters below the surface, although we do have an
archaeological site right on the surface, so dating back to
seven hundred thousand years or so, documenting the early ancestors
(05:14):
of the sand in this area. So yeah, it's a
fascinating piece of ground that fortuitously has been opened up,
and it's really opened up a window, if you like, Yeah,
into the past.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, so much to follow up on here. I mean,
what I'm hearing from you is, besides the visitor experience
and the educational opportunities for teachers to bring school children through,
this is still an active dig site where research continues
and explorational fossil sites continues. At any given time, if
one comes to visit, are you likely to see a
(05:53):
team in action or is it only every so often?
How regularly are they teams actually digging on site?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, not very regularly at currently for various reasons. But
the plan eventually, hopefully is to establish some kind of
a research institute here, multi disciplinary research institute based on
(06:27):
this is a dream of mine actually, But whether I'll
be around to see it happen, I don't know. Because
I talk about the origin and evolution of the Burg River,
which because the river, that Burg River, we think, based
on Brett Hendy's research, used to flow through this area
five million years ago and the sea levels have changed,
(06:48):
you know, gone up and down over time, and that
and the Burg River we think is at least one
hundred and twenty million years old, so that to unpack
that the origin and evolution of the Burg River from
bedrock to present would be a magnificent, multi national, multidisciplinary
(07:08):
research project to hang you know, lots of different research
questions onto. So we're not tagging. There's a Sarah regulation
that you have to leave fifty percent untouched, and our
current dig site is protected by a temporary structure and
(07:31):
we've dug as much as we're allowed to under that
that particular structure. But last year one of our staff
members who works in the you know, collecting wood as well,
you know Roy Crons in the field here, he came
across some fossil rhino burns pretty much on the surface
(07:55):
and in a quite a different spot from where we're
from where our and exciteds. So that's the next area
that we're going to explore.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
That's exciting.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, it's very exciting. Hopefully, I don't think it'll be
you know, it'll be early next year hopefully with Professor
Roger Smith, who's a colleague of ours from Musico, and yeah,
he heads up our excavations in the fossil park. Because
you must remember a lot of the research gets done
(08:29):
on the collections, and the collection is housed at the
museum in Cape Town, Musico, and so a lot of
visiting researchers and you know, anybody who's doing research on
these fossils takes place there on the collections. So because
because lots of different questions are asked, not only what
(08:51):
animal are you looking at? That's the primary research question.
You want to identify who's who in New Zoo before
you can build up a you tell picture of what
life was like here. So but then really very very
interesting research builds up on that basic information, you know,
(09:13):
the taxonomic information, because you want to know, for instance,
we've got three different species of elephant that co existed here,
and you know, first a question would be how on
Earth could the environment support three different species of elephant
at the same time time? Yea. And a fascinating bit
(09:38):
of evidence regarding the vegetation what it used to be
like here five million years ago comes from the tiniest
part of the plant that can fossilize, and that is
the pollen. Pollen grains you know, that are microscopic. They
can preserve extremely well under the right conditions, and we
(10:01):
have clever paleonologists who can study them and identify them,
and so based on the fossil pollens, it has been
deduced that the climate and vegetation was very different here
five million years ago. It was warmer and wetter, so
it was more subtropical. Sure, so they were treat you know,
(10:23):
it was forested with lots of different palm trees and
yellow woods and things like that. But in amongst those
fossil pollens is the earliest, some of the earliest evidence
for fain boats in this region and grasses. So that's
telling you that the warm, wet conditions we're changing to
(10:45):
the cooler, dryer, Mediterranean type conditions that we live with today.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
At that point. Yeah, it's a fascinating window into history.
I just want to say in case anyone is coming
into this conversation midway, that our guest fire Zoom is Perhartoff,
manager of the West Coast Fossil Park and talking to
us about some of the absolutely fascinating research that continues
around the fossil finds which have been found in this area.
(11:11):
But Pepa, let's just shift the conversation a bit to
the current visitor experience for somebody coming in as a
lay person out of curiosity rather than scientific curiosity. I've
already heard from several listeners who've been and really enjoyed it.
Johann said he visited in twenty nineteen and found it
very interesting, and saying she always takes visitors to the
Fossil Park that displays are so informative, the guides who
(11:35):
present the dig site are wonderfully knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and
she says, congratulations to you and your teen Allan also
writing in to say I've been to the Fossil Park.
We were so surprised. It was the most interesting tour,
very tastefully upgraded and fascinating history of the Burg River estree.
So there we go, three listeners, all giving you a
thumbs up, Papa. For the sake of those who've never
(11:55):
been before, can you tell us a little bit about
the visitor experience for somebody who come as a curious tourist.
What can they find?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yes, which is the bulk of our visitors by the way. Yeah,
So we're open from Tuesdays to Friday to Tuesday to Sunday. Sorry,
and the tours start at nine o'clock, where when we're
really busy. Otherwise ten o'clock and the tour takes you
to the dig site where you can see it's primarily
(12:27):
the remains of there's at least twelve individuals these siva theas,
these rather huge. They weighed up to two thousand kilograms.
They're not they're not ancestral to the modern giraffe. They
relations they were within the giraffe family. They became totally extinct,
(12:49):
the Siva theas. So the tour takes you to the
dig site and then you can do the museum, which
is it's a beautifully exisit. This has all been done
with lottery funding. By the way, the new visitor center,
we were very fortunate to get significant funding in twenty
(13:11):
ten and the new visitor center opened in twenty eighteen.
So there's a there's a shop, a very nice restaurant
which we've outsourced to eat fantastic food there, and then
three levels of exhibition space coordinated by Joane Duggan, so
(13:39):
that within the museum you get a pretty good idea
of what the fossils, the story that the fossils tell us. Now,
I have to just remind us all now that without
fossils we would know nothing about the past. Past life
on this planet. They literally are the only key to
(13:59):
helping us out understand how life has changed through time
on this planet. And I think that's that's really undervalued
because we're curious by nature and we luckily we are
interested in where we've come from and so on. But
if there were no fossils, we wouldn't have a clue. Yeah,
(14:22):
kids wouldn't know about dinosaurs, you know, so a lot
of thrill and curiosity would be missing. Yeah, so they're
really important, and it's a remarkable thing that that that
burns and teeth and pollens and such like can actually
become fossilized. The visitor experience.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, well, I was going to ask you about accessing
that that experience in terms of fees. I understand there's
no entrance fee per se, but then once you're inside
the facility, there are different options depending on what you
want to do. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That's correc So we've just introduced a combined ticket if
you like, that enables you to do both the museum
and the and the dig. Otherwise, it's broken down according
to whether you're adult, a senior student, or a child.
(15:23):
And we're told our fees are very reasonable I don't
have them right in front of us.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I've got I've got your website open in front of me,
and the museum access fifty rand with a tour one
hundred rand, and it's it's a reduced rate for pensioners,
for children, for students, et cetera. But I also noticed
reference to cycling and walking trail access. So if somebody
wants to come and have a sort of more active
physical experience, have you got dedicated cycling and walking roots
(15:54):
mapped out?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Absolutely, really nice. The longest one is ten klong, the
shortest is three and it takes you through. I mean,
it's quite strange because it's an old mine, but and
you'd think it would be pretty uninteresting and you know, disappointing,
(16:16):
but it's been superbly rehabilitated. That was one of the
commitments that the mine ended up in the hands of
bh B Bulletin, and they had to address social, financial,
and environmental responsibilities, which entailed rehabilitating the landscape, and ulla
environmental services did such a good job that the mind
(16:41):
got an unqualified closure certificate after ten years of rehabilitation.
So most people were coming into the visitor center, actually
they don't realize it was an Old Mind because it's greens,
very green, so these trails go through the Old Mind landscape.
(17:03):
There are some no go areas where the fossils potential
fossil sites are because the entire site, which is given
one hundred tiers, is now a National Heritage Site. So yeah,
and then just for everybody's interest, the park Run has
(17:25):
just started. We had our first outrun on Saturday and
we've had very We've had fantastic feedback on that and
from now on every Saturday eight o'clock the park.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Run definitely one I'll have to add to my bucket
list to come and do in the future. Papa, thanks
for tipping us off about that, and thank you so
much for doing such a wonderful job, not just to
explaining what there is to be visited, but why it
matters so much. We do need to wrap up here,
but I just want to point listeners to your website
Fossilpark dot org dot z, which has got all of
(18:00):
the visit of information and lots of resources for teachers
linked to the educational program as well. So if you've
got a youngster in the house who's kicking their teeth
and board in the holidays, perhaps point them to that
site to have a look at some of the worksheets
to be explored, and more importantly, if you can pop
them in the car and take them for a visit
to the West Coast Fossil Park. Papaharov, manager of that park,
(18:21):
thank you so much for joining us today and wishing
you a very successful busy festive season and all the
best for twenty twenty six to you and the.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Team, Thank you so much, and the same to you
and your team, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
For joining us. A great pleasure to have papahrav with
us from the West Coast Fossil Park
Now this week in Wonder the World, we're not only
traveling in kilometers, we're also traveling back in time, way
way back in time, because we are taking you on
a visit to the West Coast Fossil Park to look
at South Africa through a different lens, the lens of
what it looked like millions of years ago. The park
is located about ninety minutes drive from the city up
(00:21):
the West Coast, of course, and it is home to
one of the world's richest fossil deposits. The remains of
animals have been found there which roamed this region five
million years ago, and they include everything from giant, short
necked giraffes to saber toothed cats to the ancestors of
modern elephants and hippos. This park offers a rare chance
to step into an ancient landscape and contemplate the remains
(00:44):
of the past and think about how dramatically our environment
has shifted over the millennia. Now to guide us through
this fascinating window into the past, it's a great pleasure
to have with us by a zoom. Pepahrhoff, who is
manager of the West Coast Fossil Park and Peppa, it's
great to have you on the show today.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Welcome, Thanks so much. It's a wonderful to have this opportunity.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Thank you our great pleasure to have you with us,
and thanks for opening our eyes to this. I have
to start by saying, unfortunately I have never visited the park,
so I am coming to this as a first time visitor,
just like many listeners will be. PIPA. What makes the
West Coast Fossil Park such a unique and important site?
Can we talk about the sort of geographical and historical
context before we talk about what is there today?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yes, so it is one of the richest fossil sites
of this age. You mentioned it average age of five
million years in the world, so it's one of the
most one of the richest fossil sites in the world
for that age. And what it has that is really
advantageous is that it's very accessible to the public by
(01:56):
the public because you know, it's not it's only one
hundred and twenty kilometers from Cape Town. And also very importantly,
it's part of the school curriculum, so we present activities
that you know that helped teachers what they would normally
(02:19):
teach in the classroom, bring their children to see the
real thing. Because what we did when we opened the
park in nineteen ninety eight we left the big bones.
You mentioned that animal agiant. It's a short nick longhound
giraffe called Asiva there and it's got huge bones. And
(02:40):
we left those bones in the ground in the particular
dig site that we opened up then, specifically for our
visitors to see the bones in the ground exactly as
they were buried five million years ago. So you know,
there are not many places you can go to see that.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You remarkable opportunity and as you said, just an out
doorstep outside of Cape Town. What fascinates me so about
your story is how these fossils were discovered, because I
understand that in fact, this entire discovery and the site
and the existence today of the Fossil Park owes its
existence to mining activity as far back as the nineteen fifties.
Is that correct? Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Correct, So they started mining actually in nineteen forty two,
around about that time full phosphate, which has multiple uses,
but the primary uses for fertilizer, and I think in
the beginning fossils were found, but they weren't brought to
(03:42):
the notice of any researchers. So the first scientific paper
was only published in nineteen fifty eight, but thereafter you know,
well over one hundred are probably close to two hundred
publications now from people from different parts of the world
because it's such a rich site. You know, there's so
(04:06):
many different animals, and we tend to specialize when we
do our research, so you'll get bird specialists, mammal specialists
and so on. And it's a fairly small work global community,
and we get to know who's an expert in which
(04:27):
field within paleontology, and so we end up working with
people from all over the world. And yeah, so it's
and it's a favored site because the fossils are so
well preserved and although a lot we're destroyed during due
to the mining process, had it not been for the mind,
(04:51):
we think the site wouldn't have been discovered because the
bulk of the fossils are buried, you know, ten fifteen
twenty meters below the surface, although we do have an
archaeological site right on the surface, so dating back to
seven hundred thousand years or so, documenting the early ancestors
(05:14):
of the sand in this area. So yeah, it's a
fascinating piece of ground that fortuitously has been opened up,
and it's really opened up a window, if you like, Yeah,
into the past.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, so much to follow up on here. I mean,
what I'm hearing from you is, besides the visitor experience
and the educational opportunities for teachers to bring school children through,
this is still an active dig site where research continues
and explorational fossil sites continues. At any given time, if
one comes to visit, are you likely to see a
(05:53):
team in action or is it only every so often?
How regularly are they teams actually digging on site?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, not very regularly at currently for various reasons. But
the plan eventually, hopefully is to establish some kind of
a research institute here, multi disciplinary research institute based on
(06:27):
this is a dream of mine actually, But whether I'll
be around to see it happen, I don't know. Because
I talk about the origin and evolution of the Burg River,
which because the river, that Burg River, we think, based
on Brett Hendy's research, used to flow through this area
five million years ago and the sea levels have changed,
(06:48):
you know, gone up and down over time, and that
and the Burg River we think is at least one
hundred and twenty million years old, so that to unpack
that the origin and evolution of the Burg River from
bedrock to present would be a magnificent, multi national, multidisciplinary
(07:08):
research project to hang you know, lots of different research
questions onto. So we're not tagging. There's a Sarah regulation
that you have to leave fifty percent untouched, and our
current dig site is protected by a temporary structure and
(07:31):
we've dug as much as we're allowed to under that
that particular structure. But last year one of our staff
members who works in the you know, collecting wood as well,
you know Roy Crons in the field here, he came
across some fossil rhino burns pretty much on the surface
(07:55):
and in a quite a different spot from where we're
from where our and exciteds. So that's the next area
that we're going to explore.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
That's exciting.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, it's very exciting. Hopefully, I don't think it'll be
you know, it'll be early next year hopefully with Professor
Roger Smith, who's a colleague of ours from Musico, and yeah,
he heads up our excavations in the fossil park. Because
you must remember a lot of the research gets done
(08:29):
on the collections, and the collection is housed at the
museum in Cape Town, Musico, and so a lot of
visiting researchers and you know, anybody who's doing research on
these fossils takes place there on the collections. So because
because lots of different questions are asked, not only what
(08:51):
animal are you looking at? That's the primary research question.
You want to identify who's who in New Zoo before
you can build up a you tell picture of what
life was like here. So but then really very very
interesting research builds up on that basic information, you know,
(09:13):
the taxonomic information, because you want to know, for instance,
we've got three different species of elephant that co existed here,
and you know, first a question would be how on
Earth could the environment support three different species of elephant
at the same time time? Yea. And a fascinating bit
(09:38):
of evidence regarding the vegetation what it used to be
like here five million years ago comes from the tiniest
part of the plant that can fossilize, and that is
the pollen. Pollen grains you know, that are microscopic. They
can preserve extremely well under the right conditions, and we
(10:01):
have clever paleonologists who can study them and identify them,
and so based on the fossil pollens, it has been
deduced that the climate and vegetation was very different here
five million years ago. It was warmer and wetter, so
it was more subtropical. Sure, so they were treat you know,
(10:23):
it was forested with lots of different palm trees and
yellow woods and things like that. But in amongst those
fossil pollens is the earliest, some of the earliest evidence
for fain boats in this region and grasses. So that's
telling you that the warm, wet conditions we're changing to
(10:45):
the cooler, dryer, Mediterranean type conditions that we live with today.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
At that point. Yeah, it's a fascinating window into history.
I just want to say in case anyone is coming
into this conversation midway, that our guest fire Zoom is Perhartoff,
manager of the West Coast Fossil Park and talking to
us about some of the absolutely fascinating research that continues
around the fossil finds which have been found in this area.
(11:11):
But Pepa, let's just shift the conversation a bit to
the current visitor experience for somebody coming in as a
lay person out of curiosity rather than scientific curiosity. I've
already heard from several listeners who've been and really enjoyed it.
Johann said he visited in twenty nineteen and found it
very interesting, and saying she always takes visitors to the
Fossil Park that displays are so informative, the guides who
(11:35):
present the dig site are wonderfully knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and
she says, congratulations to you and your teen Allan also
writing in to say I've been to the Fossil Park.
We were so surprised. It was the most interesting tour,
very tastefully upgraded and fascinating history of the Burg River estree.
So there we go, three listeners, all giving you a
thumbs up, Papa. For the sake of those who've never
(11:55):
been before, can you tell us a little bit about
the visitor experience for somebody who come as a curious tourist.
What can they find?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yes, which is the bulk of our visitors by the way. Yeah,
So we're open from Tuesdays to Friday to Tuesday to Sunday. Sorry,
and the tours start at nine o'clock, where when we're
really busy. Otherwise ten o'clock and the tour takes you
to the dig site where you can see it's primarily
(12:27):
the remains of there's at least twelve individuals these siva theas,
these rather huge. They weighed up to two thousand kilograms.
They're not they're not ancestral to the modern giraffe. They
relations they were within the giraffe family. They became totally extinct,
(12:49):
the Siva theas. So the tour takes you to the
dig site and then you can do the museum, which
is it's a beautifully exisit. This has all been done
with lottery funding. By the way, the new visitor center,
we were very fortunate to get significant funding in twenty
(13:11):
ten and the new visitor center opened in twenty eighteen.
So there's a there's a shop, a very nice restaurant
which we've outsourced to eat fantastic food there, and then
three levels of exhibition space coordinated by Joane Duggan, so
(13:39):
that within the museum you get a pretty good idea
of what the fossils, the story that the fossils tell us. Now,
I have to just remind us all now that without
fossils we would know nothing about the past. Past life
on this planet. They literally are the only key to
(13:59):
helping us out understand how life has changed through time
on this planet. And I think that's that's really undervalued
because we're curious by nature and we luckily we are
interested in where we've come from and so on. But
if there were no fossils, we wouldn't have a clue. Yeah,
(14:22):
kids wouldn't know about dinosaurs, you know, so a lot
of thrill and curiosity would be missing. Yeah, so they're
really important, and it's a remarkable thing that that that
burns and teeth and pollens and such like can actually
become fossilized. The visitor experience.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, well, I was going to ask you about accessing
that that experience in terms of fees. I understand there's
no entrance fee per se, but then once you're inside
the facility, there are different options depending on what you
want to do. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That's correc So we've just introduced a combined ticket if
you like, that enables you to do both the museum
and the and the dig. Otherwise, it's broken down according
to whether you're adult, a senior student, or a child.
(15:23):
And we're told our fees are very reasonable I don't
have them right in front of us.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I've got I've got your website open in front of me,
and the museum access fifty rand with a tour one
hundred rand, and it's it's a reduced rate for pensioners,
for children, for students, et cetera. But I also noticed
reference to cycling and walking trail access. So if somebody
wants to come and have a sort of more active
physical experience, have you got dedicated cycling and walking roots
(15:54):
mapped out?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Absolutely, really nice. The longest one is ten klong, the
shortest is three and it takes you through. I mean,
it's quite strange because it's an old mine, but and
you'd think it would be pretty uninteresting and you know, disappointing,
(16:16):
but it's been superbly rehabilitated. That was one of the
commitments that the mine ended up in the hands of
bh B Bulletin, and they had to address social, financial,
and environmental responsibilities, which entailed rehabilitating the landscape, and ulla
environmental services did such a good job that the mind
(16:41):
got an unqualified closure certificate after ten years of rehabilitation.
So most people were coming into the visitor center, actually
they don't realize it was an Old Mind because it's greens,
very green, so these trails go through the Old Mind landscape.
(17:03):
There are some no go areas where the fossils potential
fossil sites are because the entire site, which is given
one hundred tiers, is now a National Heritage Site. So yeah,
and then just for everybody's interest, the park Run has
(17:25):
just started. We had our first outrun on Saturday and
we've had very We've had fantastic feedback on that and
from now on every Saturday eight o'clock the park.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Run definitely one I'll have to add to my bucket
list to come and do in the future. Papa, thanks
for tipping us off about that, and thank you so
much for doing such a wonderful job, not just to
explaining what there is to be visited, but why it
matters so much. We do need to wrap up here,
but I just want to point listeners to your website
Fossilpark dot org dot z, which has got all of
(18:00):
the visit of information and lots of resources for teachers
linked to the educational program as well. So if you've
got a youngster in the house who's kicking their teeth
and board in the holidays, perhaps point them to that
site to have a look at some of the worksheets
to be explored, and more importantly, if you can pop
them in the car and take them for a visit
to the West Coast Fossil Park. Papaharov, manager of that park,
(18:21):
thank you so much for joining us today and wishing
you a very successful busy festive season and all the
best for twenty twenty six to you and the.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Team, Thank you so much, and the same to you
and your team, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
For joining us. A great pleasure to have papahrav with
us from the West Coast Fossil Park
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