|
 “I am practically without a horse. I think it would be cheaper and better
if I took to cycling. There is a man here who gives lessons and manages
to teach all, or almost all, his pupils - old and young. Aunt Helen learnt
of him and manages to do very well. I feel quite envious when I see
Mother spinning along Victoria Road when I have to crawl along either
on foot, or by a cart. Sometimes I hire a horse.”
Two famous motorists who drove on it in 1912 were Charles Jarrott and
S. F. Edge. When they returned to London, Jarrott said:
“So much had I heard of South African roads - or lack of them ...and lo!
when I stepped ashore at Cape Town I found a road...a Riviera, a
winding, twisting, Cornish road, with a perfect surface, beautifullygraded
slopes and rounded curves, and scenery finer than Beaulieu, Eze
and Monte Carlo, a blue sea and turquoise sky and a glorious sun that
shone all day with a radiance and warmth which makes driving too
delightful to express.”117 Driving along Victoria Road is as delightful as
it was then and it remains “ a scenic drive every bit as impressive today
as it was when new.”
Camps Bay by now was a popular picnic spot. Because the area was
relatively uninhabited and the beach was large and secluded, the Victorian
family could picnic and frolic there in seclusion and privacy. Eric Rosenthal’s
father119 remembered as a schoolboy swimming naked near the deserted
beach. There were only two or three houses in the vicinity and those, like
that of Daniel Mills, were hidden in the bush.
Mrs Andries de Smidt recalled family picnics in the 1880s. “Green
stretches of turf under oak trees, with a running stream and well within
easy reach of sand and sea, made it an ideal rendezvous for camping and
picnics. The servants (were) sent ahead to fix up tables and swings for
the children and get everything including a tremendous assortment and
quantity of food well prepared for the comfort of the families who
arrived later in their carriages.”
This running stream was known as the Stinkwater stream. John
Kotzéwho picnicked here in the 1860s wrote that the name arose from the
unpleasant smell in the pool that often formed where the stream reached
the beach and which came from the decomposing seaweed left behind
when the tide went out, and that the name unfortunately was transferred
from the pool to the stream.121 Victorian gentility and sensibility changed the
`ST’ to `BL’ and the name of the stream became upgraded to Blinkwater.
Holiday makers did not even have to take the trouble of sending their
servants out with the food. Picnic hampers were available. Mr Johnstone
of Camps Bay House advertised in 1847 that he provided picnic parties
with everything that is really good on such occasions.
Camps Bay self
catering accommodation
The Round House in particular was a popular picnic place. Mrs Ross in
her 1861 visit called it a great resort for Cape Cockneys on high days and
holidays and also gave a description of a picnic on the beach of a party of
about fifty Malays who caught123 fish which they braaied, and danced to
music on fiddles, drums and violoncellos. The picnickers even presented
the occupants of the Camps Bay House with some of the fish they had
caught. It was a popular site for December 1st celebrations, the
anniversary of the emancipation of slaves. The Cape Argus, 2 December
1862, hoped that the newly opened railway would persuade the celebrants
“to forgo their midnight march round the Kloof (Nek) and their midday
revels at Camps Bay...their music, their dancing, their frivolities and their
feasts.”124 As late as 1903, Maud Walton wrote of watching a picnic by
Malays on Camps Bay beach where there was dancing to concertinas in
which everyone joined in - even the little children:
“So colourful were their picnics and their merry-making that the
Europeans took as much pleasure in watching them as they made
pleasure themselves... Never was there disturbance of any kind, and
man, woman and child, all enjoyed the day.”
No part of this
publication may be reproduced without the prior written consent
of both the publisher and Holiday Rentals in Cape Town
|
