TRANSPORT
In this section I discuss everything transport related other than cars. That you can find here : CARS Shipping is limited to HARBOUR MEMORIES
Wagons & carts
This one is dated 1915
This is dated 1911 and labelled "tennis at Hansa Haus" presumably some social event at the home of a German family.
I cannot tell you very much more about these two photos. What I do know is that the family would set off for ling distance picnics by mule drawn wagons, in these cases to social events on someone's farms, but I remember being told of similar excursions to beaches up the coast. Even getting to a friend's cottage just accross the Quinera River ie opposite Bonza Bay, was such an adventure.
Even while cars were becoming popular, such vehicles still had the benefits of being able to transverse rough wild terrain. It was using such transport including the heavier ox drawn wagons that our ancestors got about the area now knowns as the Eastern Cape.
This is an extract from a photo of the premises that were to become Noggs Newman's warehouse business. By the time I knew Noggs his business was thriving and designed new access for lorries, but he could still claim his own railway siding (essential in the earlier years of railway predominant deliveries). But here we see mule drawn wagons with bags of produce lining up. The label notes "Newman + Wilki Newman's Bond Store near the cemetery".
Cycling
I don't have many picture of cycling, even though it would have been popular with my family, so here is one from England. These are family friends, the Fullers. We are connected to the Fullers through the Newmans, so presumably these are their relatives. Ethel in front in Broadstairs. Anyway, aren't you impressed with the cycling gear? The very reason that women's bikes have a low cross bar. These would have been fixed gear bikes then. It is a flat but rutted road.
Airflight
Imagine an era within living memory where airflight was unusual. Almost all planes had propellers, but gradually more airlines introduced jet engines. Trips were quicker, but for some time still the preserve of a few. Those who did use these regularly became known as "jet-setters".
It was also a time before the stringent security measures of today. You could ask to see the pilot's area even while flying. On one ocassion my father did so while on a flight up to Durban. The pilot flew low over a house on the Transkei Wild Coast and dropped a newspaper out the window for a friend.
East London's current airport terminal had not yet been built when we were kids. At that time it was still at Collondale at the other end of the runway. This was comprised of old WWII airforce shed. One for passengers and another for luggage. We would go outside to the fence to get close to the stationary aircraft. Corrugated iron sheltered us from the blast when the engines were started. (I remember such a moment in about 1964 with my brother when I confided in him that I had started shaving with our father's shaver. I never confided in him so the atmosphere must have affected me).
SAA introduced jet flights in part due to most African countries denying them landing rights on the long hauls to Europe. They needed aircraft with greater speed and distance capabilities.
This Viscount was taken by my father at Jan Smuts (Johannesburg) airport on one of his trips in 1954. It does not necessarily mean that he flew on it. (A plane like this crashed into the sea off East London in 1967}.
My father was a friend of Hugh Stocks who lived in or near Johannesburg, but who had a beach cottage in the Port Alfred area. He was a keen small plane pilot and over time owned several planes. On one ocassion he invited us all down to his cottage on his plane.
I was to get another small plane flight years later when I asked someone I knew who was a flight controller at the airport if he could arrange something. I wanted to get air photos of the East London area for my project of M.O.S.S (Metropolitcan Open Space System) that I was doing through the local SA Wildlife and Environment Society.
One of my architect friends did gliding. After hearing some of the reactions of others who had gone up with him, I declined an invite. But I did got up in a microlight owned by a builder friend and felt very safe. It was one of those triangular "kite" shaped craft with an engine at the back. The photos of our house taken from it can be found here. HOME ENVIRONMENT BEACON BAY
