Oddly enough, this story starts with goose barnacles. What might those be you might ask? These are goose barnacles. In July 2009 fate made sure I was walking along a beautiful beach in Goukamma Nature Reserve near Buffelsbaai. I was looking for goose barnacles that had washed ashore as part of my honours thesis. You see there are several different species of goose barnacle and I wanted to find out if different species preferred different objects. I had already noticed that all species had a strong affinity for plastic, and so every piece of plastic I came across received a good looking at. Then came the surprise, an old sun bleached Bonaqua litchi bottle. It didn't have any goose barnacles but it did have a letter. 'A message in a bottle!' I shouted out, the excitement taking over. I looked around and saw Aiden a bit further down the beach. I ran over to him and showed him the lucky find. 'No waaaaaays bruuu!'. Back at the backpackers...