BEACHES
In later life I got to love beaches. I paddle-skiied and windsurfed and got quite proficient at both. But as a child I was asthmatic and found the cold water, the sand in my sandwiches and the sharp windblown sand very challenging. But my ancestors seem to have fared better.
I have several photos of beachside picnics and swimming in the sea.
The Orient & Quanza
East London has two great beaches. The Eastern Beach is exposed, but had the woody retreat of Marina Glen just across the road. The Orient Beach was created by the accumulation of sand against the pier and was named after an early shipwreck there. Also see HARBOUR MEMORIES
I am pretty sure that that is Granny Maud on the right, but do not know who the other woman is. Great swimming cossies. That is the old Orient Beach changing building with his & hers enstrance steps. Note how thick the vegetation is up on Signal Hill behind it.
This is the forerunner of the Quanza Pool. It was built on the rocks close to the Orient Beach and filled with sea water. Swimming was segregated. We are not talking of separation of races. Men and women had to swim in their own sections. (Remains of the early pool can still be seen on the rocks next to the current one). If you think society was over prudish in these days, you may be surprised to learn that one of the concerns of the Council was the popularity of nude swimming in the sea.
Marina Glen and Eastern Beach
Eastern Beach was not as well protected as the Orient Beach. The surf was affected by backwash and cross currents leading to rip waves. The small brackish river separated it from the stretch of sand instespersed with rocks, before becoming the rocky area of Bat's Cave and beyond that rocky walks to Mermaids Pool and eventually Nahoon Point. That same little river also separated the races. People of other colours were not allowed on the main beach, but could bathe in amongst the rocks eastwards of it.
Overlooking all this was the very high wooded sand dune that appears in many old photos and works of art.
With the removal of restrictions on the fall of apartheid, Eastern Beach became a mecca for those previously barred from it and on public holidays was mobbed by hundreds of thousands which overspilled into Marina Glen. Some even seemed to move in long term. Few of these people could swim and drownings have occurred. Hopefully over the generations, the population will become much more sea savvy.
Eastern Beach with its magnificent sand dune. The label on this commercially taken photo notes it as "Nahoon Point, East London, SA", but that really only applies to the rocky outcrop to the extreme right. This is a natural beach, but erosion occurred up to the sands against the woody area to the left. The photo records the creation of a hard edge with infilled boulders to stabilise it. This eventually became the road we see today. I have left the circular pencil mark on applied by someone else. It seems to draw attention to the main dune. That signs is apparently about safety. It was to become replaced with signs about barring "non-whites" from the main sands.
These are the steps leading straight up from the road along Eastern Beach into the Marina Glen tea garden. It was developed as a place to raise funds for charities. In this early photo it is aiming to raise funds to support the troops during WWII
If you walked through this area you came to extensive lawns encircled by coastal woods and an almost central section of woods. This was the area infilled when the small stagnant stream was straightened. That became the location of the "Smarties Train" run by the Round Table.
