Stories from Martin Hatchuel - Martin Hatchuel, writer

Knysna gallerist Trent Read celebrates 50 years in art

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Knysna Fine Art owner, Trent Read, will celebrate a career of half a century as an art dealer when his gallery celebrates its 25th anniversary in November this year.

“I grew up with artists,” he said. “My dad was a dealer, so they were part and parcel of my life. If they were staying with us, they were there at the breakfast table – so I always knew them, and some of them were major names.”

This instilled in him a “good knowledge and deep interest in art across the spectrum and in the various disciplines.”

But, he said, his particular interest encompasses contemporary art and contemporary artists.

“Finding artists at the early stages of their career, recognising their quality, and then giving them the opportunities they need – that’s what excites me.”

LONG CAREER

Mr Read began his working life as a prospector in Northern Namibia, and used the money he earned there to take himself to London, where he joined the auction house Christie’s.

“I started as a porter, knowing very little or nothing about anything – but my goodness I learned. Standing in the sale rooms, holding those beautiful objects up as they were being sold, and listening to the world’s top dealers, clients, and collectors. It was wonderful.

“After some years there, I came back and worked in the family business” (the Everard Read Gallery).

In the mid-80s, at the height of the cultural boycott, the company sent Mr Read to open a gallery in San Antonio, Texas, to serve its numerous American clients.

“I loved America: I was becoming an American – it is a melting pot – and I was doing fairly well. But 1991, when I heard that Mandela had been released, I decided to come home.”

Back in Johannesburg, Mr. Read opened the Everard Read Contemporary – a revolutionary space in its day, which showed exclusively works by living South African artists: this had never been done before.

“Shortly afterwards we had the ‘94 elections and my son was born, and I thought this was the time to move to Knysna – and the rest is history: I opened Knysna Fine Art in ‘98, and we’ve been in Knysna for twenty five years now.”

INTERESTS

Outside of the gallery, Mr Read’s interests stretch books, cooking, science, and current affairs, and he relishes walking in the veld in the Klein Karoo.

“I’ve had a wonderful time of it,” he says, “and I’ll be celebrating my 50-year-long career on the 25th and 26th of November this year, when Knysna Fine Art will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an exciting, major exhibition.”

More information: www.finearts.co.za

Lara Mostert: Square Metre Woman

Sat, 14 May 2022 00:00:00 +0200

“There’s no place, anywhere in the world, where the animals who live on the land get to own their own land.”

Lara Mostert is puzzled.

“How can this be?”

She says she’s tried to find an exception to the rule – but the only answer she can find is her own: a project that she and the company she works for (SAASA: the South African Animal Sanctuaries Alliance) have put together at Monkeyland, in The Crags near Plettenberg Bay.

Lara had what she later realised was an almost idyllic childhood – running free on the beaches and sand dunes of Melkbosstrand, outside Cape Town – before going on to study advertising at two different schools in the city. (“The first one didn’t believe in computers, so I had to go to a second one and do my computer studies at night.”)

“After I qualified, I decided I wanted to work in tourism, thinking that if I joined one of the big hotel chains, I’d get a chance to travel” – and while she didn’t land her dream job, she did complete a short course in tourism, and found herself working at the exclusive Inyati Game Lodge in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, next to the Kruger National Park.

“That’s where I became friends with Tony (Blignaut - now her life partner), and in our free time we would go and sit under a tree together, where we always saw monkeys. I loved them, and I said, ‘Imagine if you had a game lodge where you only had monkeys.’

“Somehow, that idea grabbed him – he’d actually had the same idea ten years before – so whenever we took our breaks under the tree, he’d push me for my ideas about my ideal monkey sanctuary.

“But then he left the lodge, where he’d been a director, and went to live in the USA.”

Didn’t last long, though: Tony came back after only a few weeks.

“He phoned me at Inyati and said, ‘Do you still want to start Monkeyland?’ – and of course I said yes and dropped everything to go and join him.

“Together with his ex-partners, he put the finance together, and we opened Monkeyland just three years later, in April, 1998.”

It was a new concept in animal welfare: a rescue centre that offers the animals in its care the opportunity to live in a semi-wild state, in an environment that’s in many ways quite similar to their own, natural habitats. (It’s not always desirable to release previously captive animals into the wild – especially when they’re not indigenous to the host country.)

“Everyone said it would fail, though – even Nature Conservation predicted it – and we had to find investors who would carry the cost if it did fail.

“In those days, no one even knew what the word ‘primate’ meant, and I wanted to change that. But that needed activism – and I understood that for activism to work, it has to be fun.”

It was an insight she used powerfully when it came to marketing the business, too.

Lara’s often off-beat marketing gained her – and Monkeyland – quite a reputation: she handed out hundreds of bananas to po-faced delegates at South Africa’s premier tourism trade show – Indaba – and also hugged huge numbers of them, leaving each one unknowingly with a sticker on the back of their shirt or jacket: ‘I’d rather be at Monkeyland.’

But this also drew attention to the animals in SAASA’s care, attracted visitors in their thousands, helped stop animal touching experiences in sanctuaries and other facilities around the country – and, as we shall see – made Monkeyland a gold-award winner in the international responsible tourism arena.

Destiny

“I believe in destiny, and that you should do something in life that’s meaningful,” said Lara.

“I don’t have children, so whatever I’ve made in life goes to – and will go to – the animals, because I was chosen to work with animals.

“I’d rather go without food than allow an animal to go without food.”

Lara, as you can tell, is passionate. It doesn’t stop with monkeys, though – although SAASA established a second Monkeyland in KwaZulu-Natal in April, 2019, she and Tony – she’ll insist that Tony does all the work – have also established Birds of Eden (opened in 2005), and now manage Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary, which provides a species-appropriate home for wild cats and other predators, many of which were rescued from circus performance, or from distressed zoos.

Both Birds of Eden and Jukani are also situated in The Crags.

Birds of Eden cares for previously caged birds in a 23,000 square metre, single-dome, free-flight aviary – the largest of its kind in the world – and also in a 900 square metre forested facility built especially for African grey parrots, which can’t be safely released into the general population.

“African greys live naturally in flocks – and not in the miserable single cages in which they are so often held as pets. South Africans are breeding far too many of them for the pet trade, and the species is becoming a problem for everyone who’s concerned for their welfare,” said Lara.

“We had more than 3,500 birds from more than 220 species in Birds of Eden before the pandemic started, and took in more than 700 others during lockdown. What else could we do? People lost the ability to look after their pets.

“And then we still had to feed everybody, even though we had no visitors coming through, and very little staff.

“During the early part of the pandemic, I spent most of my time in the kitchen cutting up fruit and vegetables for the birds and monkeys.”

#HandsOff

All of SAASA’s facilities enforce a no touch, #HandsOff policy, and have done since they were founded.

This was not the situation with many other facilities, though.

“I spent most of the early part of my career helping to convince the tourism industry in South Africa and around the world that ‘hands off’ is the only ethical approach, and gradually more and more people came to share our opinion.

“It’s very good to see that large companies like AirBnB and booking.com have now distanced themselves from petting wild animals, from circuses that feature wild animals[1], and so on, and that our own Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA) has developed a toolkit with criteria for true sanctuaries or rehabilitation centres,” said Lara.

SATSA’s criteria for ethical animal interactions[2] include: no breeding or trading in wild animals; no performing animals; no touching or walking with wild animals (“no animals in tactile interactions”); animals should only be held in captivity if they are sick, injured, orphaned, rescued, donated and/or abandoned; the animals must either be given homes for life, used for in-situ repopulation through reintegration into the wild, or relocated via recognised conservation programmes; and the facilities in which the animals are held must comply with all relevant legislation, and must be transparent in their operations and marketing collateral.

World Responsible Tourism Awards

SAASA’s – and Lara’s – ethical approach paid off for Monkeyland and its sister sanctuaries at the 2014 World Responsible Tourism Awards[3], which were presented on World Responsible Tourism Day during London’s World Travel Market.

The Alliance was named Joint Overall Winners (with Brazil’s Campo and Parque Dos Sonhos)[4], and also joint Gold Award Winners (with UK-based World Animal Protection)[5] for the Best Animal Welfare Initiative.

For the overall gold award, the organisers said:

The judges wanted to recognise two very different category winners. The [South African Animal] Sanctuary Alliance for demonstrating that animal attractions can liberate previously captive wildlife and, without petting or exploitation, be commercially successful. Parque dos Sonhos for demonstrating that truly inclusive tourism can enhance the adventure activity experiences for everyone and enable families and friends to share the experience. Both winners demonstrate that it is possible to address the rights agenda, to swim against the tide, and be commercially successful.” (responsible travel.com)[6]

For the Best Animal Welfare Initiative Award[7], the judges (under chairperson Dr. Harold Goodwin[8], a Professor Emeritus and Responsible Tourism Director at the Institute of Place Management at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the responsible tourism programme adviser to World Travel Market) wrote that SAASA uses tourism,

“to help fund their conservation efforts, but they stress the importance of responsible tourism in this respect. One of its main achievements is to show visitors that petting and interacting with wild animals, as if they were domesticated, is irresponsible…. SAASA does not permit any activities that would place animals under stress and strives to educate tourists and tour operators on the reasons why not. Which include dangers to tourists, disease risks to both animals and tourists, and the fact that we are supporting unethical methods used to pacify wild animals enough so that they can be petted.

“...SAASA's exemplary practices and findings are now being used as benchmarks for future animal sanctuaries… other conservationists, students, media and animal-led organisations, [and] many international sanctuaries [now follow] in their footsteps.”

The judges also said that, “The South African Animal Sanctuary Alliance (SAASA) is like the supermodel of how sanctuaries should practise conservation and how they should present themselves on the world tourism stage."[9]

Square metres for animals

“Getting petting and performance out of the way was an important place to start, but now it’s time to focus on a bigger issue: giving animals the right to own their own land, said Lara.”

She said that the rights of nature are well established in South Africa, as in many countries around the world. “There’s a whole branch of law that deals with the rights of nature or Earth Rights – which Wikipedia describes as “a legal and jurisprudential theory that describes inherent rights as associated with ecosystems and species, similar to the concept of fundamental human rights.”[10]

The general consensus seems to be that rights of nature law has as its foundation the publication of Christopher D. Stone’s 1972 article in the Southern California Law Review, ‘Should Trees Have Standing? Towards Legal Rights for Natural Objects"[11], which might be summed up in three quotes direct from the text:

(1) “The fact is, that each time there is a movement to confer rights onto some new "entity," [women, black people, animals] the proposal is bound to sound odd or frightening or laughable. This is partly because until the rightless thing receives its rights, we cannot see it as anything but a thing for the use of "us" – those who are holding rights at the time.”

(2) “...natural objects can communicate their wants (needs) to us, and in ways that are not terribly ambiguous. I am sure I can judge with more certainty and meaningfulness whether and when my lawn wants (needs) water, than the Attorney General can judge whether and when the United States wants (needs) to take an appeal from an adverse judgment by a lower court. The lawn tells me that it wants water by a certain dryness of the blades and soil – immediately obvious to the touch – the appearance of bald spots, yellowing, and a lack of springiness after being walked on; how does ‘the United States communicate to the Attorney General? For similar reasons, the guardian-attorney for a smog-endangered stand of pines could venture with more confidence that his client wants the smog stopped, than the directors of a corporation can assert that "the corporation" wants dividends declared.”

And:

(3) “As far as adjudicating the merits of a controversy is concerned, there is also a good case to be made for taking into account harm to the environment – in its own right. As indicated above, the traditional way of deciding whether to issue injunctions in law suits affecting the environment, at least where communal property is involved, has been to strike some sort of balance regarding the economic hardships on human beings… Why should the environment be of importance only indirectly, as lost profits to someone else? Why not throw into the balance the cost to the environment?”

Lara, though, would argue that rights and ownership[12] are different things.

“I have the right to own land, but unless I buy it, or unless it’s given to me, I don’t actually own it, and I can’t do what I like with it. And it’s the same for animals – or it could be, if we used the law to our advantage.”

Concerned for the future of the animals in their care (almost 6,000 at latest count), Tony and Lara began to wonder what would happen to them if either of them died, or if enough of the committed members of their board of directors died, too.

And what if the director’s heirs didn’t care for the future of SAASA’s animals the way they do?

“The crisis in tourism caused by the current pandemic has opened our eyes to the possibility that future generations of shareholders might not have the same passion for the animals that we do,” said Tony.

As Christopher Stone said: “it was clear [back in the medieval ages] how a king could bind himself – on his honor – by a treaty. But when the king died, what was it that was burdened with the obligations of, and claimed the rights under, the treaty his tangible hand had signed?’”

And so Lara and Tony decided on the only logical solution: Monkeyland had to be sold to the monkeys.

Not so easily done, though. Although the monkeys belonged technically to no one, the land belonged to the company’s original directors. And, despite more than fifty years of activism around the world, it seems that no country has yet enacted legislation that allows the creatures who have rights to a piece of land, to actually own that land.

“We had to make it possible for our existing non-profit to hold the land on behalf of the animals in what the lawyers call a ‘per proxima amici’ arrangement (‘by or through the next friend’) – and to fund that arrangement, we came up with our concept of selling squares metres on behalf of the primates,” said Lara.

SAASA immediately set about negotiating the purchase of the land, and to finance the sale it set up a unique crowdfunding campaign that allows people and organisations to donate individual square metres at a cost of just US$5.00 (R90.00) per metre to the cause.

(Side note: Since SAASA is a registered Public Benefit Organisation, and since its ‘Buy a Square Meter’ campaign falls within its organisational objectives, such donations are tax deductible in terms of Section 18A of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962.)

“With a total of 216,000 square metres available at Monkeyland – at $5 or R 90.00 per square metre (see map) – the campaign will raise more than the required amount, and the balance will go into an emergency fund to protect the animals’ food bill until such time as tourism returns to normal,” said Tony.

“We see giving the animals at Monkeyland rights to their own land in this way as a pilot project that will hopefully be rolled out to the other sanctuaries in the SAASA stable, and to many other facilities around the world, too,” said Tony.

As for Lara, she says she’ll only be satisfied when the deal is done.

“I don’t have many interests – I like to walk and I like to travel.” (Ironically, perhaps, she’s had more opportunities to travel for Monkeyland and SAASA than she could ever have imagined back when she was a young woman going into tourism for the first time. And she does like the occasional overseas holiday, too – usually on her own, or just with Tony. She prefers it that way.)

“But above all,” she said, “I love my animals – and seeing them safe is everything I need in life.”

ARTICLE AUTHOR: Martin Hatchuel

14 May, 2022

Media enquiries

Lara Mostert, lara@monkeyland.co.za +27(0)82 979 5683
Download the text of this article in pdf format here

End notes

[1] Getaway, 21 October 2019: ‘Travel sites stop selling tickets to captive animal performances’ https://www.getaway.co.za/travel-news/travel-sites-stop-selling-tickets-to-captive-animal-performances/

[2] SATSA: ‘Evaluating Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities. A tool to help you make good choices’ https://www.satsa.com/wp-content/uploads/SATSA_HumanAnimalInteractions_Tool6.pdf

[3] WTM – World Responsible Tourism Awards: https://hub.wtm.com/press/world-responsible-tourism-awards/

[4] Campo and Parque Dos Sonhos: http://www.campodossonhos.com.br/

[5] World Animal Protection: https://www.worldanimalprotection.org

[6] responsibletravel.com: ‘2014 World Responsible Tourism Awards Winners’ https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/responsible-tourism/travel-guide/2014-awards-winners

[7] responsibletravel.com: ‘Best Animal Welfare Initiative’ https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/responsible-tourism/travel-guide/wildlife-and-habitats-awards-category

[8] Dr. Harold Godwin: https://haroldgoodwin.info

[9] WTM, Animal Welfare Initiative Award, 2014 winners https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/responsible-tourism/travel-guide/wildlife-and-habitats-awards-category

[10] Wikipedia, ‘Rights of Nature’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_nature

[11] Stone, Christopher D. ‘Should Trees Have Standing? – Towards Legal Rights for Natural Objects.’ Southern California Law Review 45 (1972): 450-501 https://iseethics.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/stone-christopher-d-should-trees-have-standing.pdf

[12] wikidiff.com: ‘Right vs Ownership - What's the difference?’ https://wikidiff.com/ownership/right: “As nouns the difference between right and ownership is that right is that which complies with justice, law or reason while ownership is the state of having complete legal control of the status of something.”

Notes to editors

Links

Purchase a square metre of Monkeyland on behalf of it primates; https://www.monkeyland.tv/buy-a-square-meter-of-forest/
SAASA - the South African Animal Sanctuaries Alliance: https://www.saasa.org.za
Monkeyland, The Craggs: https://www.monkeyland.co.za
Monkeyland, Ballito, Kwa-Zulu Natal: https://www.monkeylandkzn.co.za
Birds of Eden: https://www.birdsofeden.co.za
Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary: https://www.jukani.co.za

NPO registration

The South African Animal Sanctuary Alliance (SAASA) NPO number: 008-464

Sanctuaries in SAASA’s stable

Monkeyland, The Crags, Plettenberg Bay
This is an area of tall yellowwoods, stinkwoods, and white pear trees, where the resident primates (including Capuchin monkeys, ring-tailed and black-and-white ruffed lemurs, gibbons, howler monkeys and more) are free to form their own family groups, and to socialise amongst themselves as they normally would – without interference from the guests. (“There are no fences between our visitors and the monkeys at Monkeyland, but we’re strict about enforcing our non-negotiable, ‘no petting’ rule,” said SAASA CEO, Tony Blignaut.)

Visitors are treated to guided walking tours – ‘monkey safaris’ – which depart every half hour from the centre’s reception complex, which is open every day of the year.

Attractions at Monkeyland include a one hundred and twenty eight-metre suspension bridge that spans a deep gorge in the forest. This allows visitors to view many of the monkeys as they go about their daily lives high up in the canopy of the trees – and provides some of the best photo opportunities in a sanctuary that’s become known for spectacular photo opportunities.

A second Monkeyland sanctuary was established in Ballito, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, in 2019.

Monkeyland, The Crags, Plettenberg Bay: https://www.monkeyland.co.za
Monkeyland, Ballito, Kwa-Zulu Natal: https://www.monkeylandkzn.co.za

Birds of Eden
“In the same way you can’t release non-indigenous animals into the wild, you can’t just release captive birds and expect them to fend for themselves – both because of the threat to the individual birds themselves, and because of the danger that they could become invasive, and so threaten the country’s natural biodiversity, as has happened with species like the Indian myna and the house crow,” said Tony.

His solution was to create the world’s largest free-flight dome aviary by spanning a wire mesh structure over 23,000 square metres of a second, partly-forested gorge close to Monkeyland.

Birds of Eden is now home to nearly 4,500 birds belonging to more than two hundred and twenty different species, and, since many of these individuals were previously held in tiny cages in private homes, most of them had to go through a rehabilitation process to learn to socialise with other birds before release into the dome.

Now, with 1.2 km of winding wooden boardwalks that meander through the trees and past rushing waterfalls and tranquil ponds, Birds of Eden is both a comfortable home for its residents, and a fun-filled destination for guests. Tours here are self-guided, although guides are available at no extra cost.

Birds of Eden: https://www.birdsofeden.co.za

Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary
Jukani bills itself as being a space ‘where rescued big cats feel at home.’ As with SAASA’s other sanctuaries, it was created to provide rescued animals with large natural habitats designed around the individual species’ needs, and in which they can live out their lives in peace and comfort.

This sanctuary focuses on apex predators – lions, tigers, leopards, pumas, caracals, jaguars, etc. – that required rehoming (usually from facilities that find themselves unable to care for them: distressed zoos, circuses, etc.).

Visitors are treated to 80-minute guided tours, and also to sightings of animals like raccoons, a honey badger, African polecat, and spotted hyena – as well as small herds of springbok and zebra.

“Like all our sanctuaries, Jukani is suitable for all ages and fitness levels, and it’s wheelchair-friendly, too” said Tony.

Facilities include a gift shop – profits support the welfare of Jukani’s inhabitants – while restaurant facilities are available at Monkeyland and Birds of Eden, just a few kilometres to the east.

Jukani: https://www.jukani.co.za

General notes: 'Should Trees Have Standing?'

Excerpts from Christopher Stone’s 'Should Trees Have Standing? – Towards Legal Rights for Natural Objects'

Page 455: “The fact is, that each time there is a movement to confer rights onto some new "entity," the proposal is bound to sound odd or frightening or laughable. This is partly because until the rightless thing receives its rights, we cannot see it as anything but a thing for the use of "us" – those who are holding rights at the time.”

+++++++

Page 463: “Even where special measures have been taken to conserve them (living things), as by seasons on game and limits on timber cutting, the dominant motive has been to conserve them for us – for the greatest good of the greatest number of human beings. Conservationists, so far as I am aware, are generally reluctant to maintain otherwise. As the name implies, they want to conserve and guarantee our consumption and our enjoyment of these other living things. In their own right, natural objects have counted for little, in law as in popular movements.”

+++++++

Page 464: “It is not inevitable, nor is it wise, that natural objects should have no rights to seek redress in their own behalf. It is no answer to say that streams and forests cannot have standing because streams and forests cannot speak. Corporations cannot speak either; nor can states, estates, infants, incompetents, municipalities or universities. Lawyers speak for them, as they customarily do for the ordinary citizen with legal problems. One ought, I think, to handle the legal problems of natural objects as one does the problems of legal incompetents – human beings who have become vegetable. If a human being shows signs of becoming senile and has affairs that he is de jure incompetent to manage, those concerned with his well being make such a showing to the court, and someone is designated by the court with the authority to manage the incompetent's affairs. The guardian (or "conservator" or "committee" – the terminology varies) then represents the incompetent in his legal affairs. Courts make similar appointments when a corporation has become "incompetent" – they appoint a trustee in bankruptcy or reorganization to oversee its affairs and speak for it in court when that becomes necessary.

“On a parity of reasoning, we should have a system in which, when a friend of a natural object perceives it to be endangered, he can apply to a court for the creation of a guardianship.”

+++++++

Page 471: “The guardianship approach, however, is apt to raise two objections, neither of which seems to me to have much force. The first is that a committee or guardian could not judge the needs of the river or forest in its charge; indeed, the very concept of "needs," it might be said, could be used here only in the most metaphorical way. The second objection is that such a system would not be much different from what we now have: is not the Department of Interior already such a guardian for public lands, and do not most states have legislation empowering their attorneys general to seek relief-in a sort of parens patriae way- for such injuries as a guardian might concern himself with?

“As for the first objection, natural objects can communicate their wants (needs) to us, and in ways that are not terribly ambiguous. I am sure I can judge with more certainty and meaningfulness whether and when my lawn wants (needs) water, than the Attorney General can judge whether and when the United States wants (needs) to take an appeal from an adverse judgment by a lower court. The lawn tells me that it wants water by a certain dryness of the blades and soil – immediately obvious to the touch – the appearance of bald spots, yellowing, and a lack of springiness after being walked on; how does "the United States" communicate to the Attorney General? For similar reasons, the guardian-attorney for a smog-endangered stand of pines could venture with more confidence that his client wants the smog stopped, than the directors of a corporation can assert that "the corporation" wants dividends declared.”

+++++++

Page 472: “Besides, what a person wants, fully to secure his rights, is the ability to retain independent counsel even when, and perhaps especially when, the government is acting "for him" in a beneficent way. I have no reason to doubt, for example, that the Social Security System is being managed "for me"; but I would not want to abdicate my right to challenge its actions as they affect me, should the need arise.76 I would not ask more trust of national forests, vis-a-vis the Department of Interior. The same considerations apply in the instance of local agencies, such as regional water pollution boards, whose members' expertise in pollution matters is often all too credible.”

+++++++

Pages 473-4: “As far as adjudicating the merits of a controversy is concerned, there is also a good case to be made for taking into account harm to the environment – in its own right. As indicated above, the traditional way of deciding whether to issue injunctions in law suits affecting the environment, at least where communal property is involved, has been to strike some sort of balance regarding the economic hardships on human beings… Why should the environment be of importance only indirectly, as lost profits to someone else? Why not throw into the balance the cost to the environment?”

+++++++

Pages 475-6: “I propose going beyond gathering up the loose ends of what most people would presently recognize as economically valid damages. The guardian would urge before the court injuries not presently cognizable-the death of eagles and inedible crabs, the suf- fering of sea lions, the loss from the face of the earth of species of commercially valueless birds, the disappearance of a wilderness area. One might, of course, speak of the damages involved as "damages" to us humans, and indeed, the widespread growth of environmental groups shows that human beings do feel these losses. But they are not, at present, economically measurable losses: how can they have a monetary value for the guardian to prove in court?

“The answer for me is simple. Wherever it carves out "property" rights, the legal system is engaged in the process of creating monetary worth. One's literary works would have minimal monetary value if anyone could copy them at will. Their economic value to the author is a product of the law of copyright; the person who copies a copyrighted book has to bear a cost to the copyright-holder because the law says he must.

“I am proposing we do the same with eagles and wilderness areas as we do with copyrighted works, patented inventions, and privacy: make the violation of rights in them to be a cost by declaring the "pirating" of them to be the invasion of a property interest. If we do so, the net social costs the polluter would be confronted with would include not only the extended homocentric costs of his pollution… but also costs to the environment per se.”

+++++++

Page 498: “A few years ago the pollution of streams was thought of only as a problem of smelly, unsightly, unpotable water i.e., to us. Now we are beginning to discover that pollution is a process that destroys wondrously subtle balances of life within the water, and as between the water and its banks. This heightened awareness enlarges our sense of the dangers to us. But it also enlarges our empathy. We are not only developing the scientific capacity, but we are cultivating the personal capacities within us to recognize more and more the ways in which nature – like the woman, the Black, the Indian and the Alien – is like us (and we will also become more able realistically to define, confront, live with and admire the ways in which we are all different).”

+++++++

D. Rudhyar, 'Directives for new life' 21·23 (1971) quoted in Stone, C., page 498: “Ever since the first Geophysical Year, international scientific studies have shown irrefutably that the Earth as a whole is an organized system of most closely interrelated and indeed inter- dependent activities. It is, in the broadest sense of the term, an "organism." The so-called life-kingdoms and the many vegetable and animal species are dependent upon each other for survival in a balanced condition of planet-wide existence; and they depend on their environment,. conditioned by oceanic and atmospheric cur- rents, and even more by the protective action of the ionosphere and many other factors which have definite rhythms of operation. Mankind is part of this organic planetary whole; and there can be no truly new global society, and perhaps in the present state of affairs no society at all, as long as man will not recognize, accept and enjoy the fact that mankind has a definite function to perform within this planetary organism of which it is an active part.”

Featherbed Nature Reserve, Knysna: the origins story

Sat, 16 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0200

The mouth of the Knysna River Estuary must surely rank as one of South Africa’s most loved and recognised natural attractions: two towering massifs set a little less than three hundred metres apart across a watery channel, the Eastern Head covered with exclusive homes, and the Western Head (with its famous, bell-shaped cliff face) covered with natural, indigenous fynbos and milkwood forest.

But how was the Western Head spared development?

Short answer: the ichthyologist JLB Smith, and his son, the teacher William Smith.

Long answer:

The Smith family comes to Knysna

JLB Smith was a researcher and lecturer in chemistry who had earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1922 (Smith, MM, 1969), but who later moved permanently into the study of fishes.

Having fallen in love with fishing as a 5-year old on holiday with his parents in Knysna, JLB bought a holiday cottage on the banks of the Salt River, which then marked the western edge of the village, in 1928. He chose the site for its direct access to the lagoon – essential for angling while on much needed family breaks away from his academic life at Rhodes.

The property originally had a small corrugated iron cottage on stilts and a tin-roofed milking shed. In 1948 he swapped the corrugated iron – which was then still in short supply as a result of the Second World War – for a supply of bricks and mortar, and built the double-story home that would become known as the Blue House (now On the Estuary guest house).

The house, which became a landmark on the road from George, got its name from its colour: the outside walls were painted with JLB’s own formula of Reckitt's Blue mixed with prickly pear sap (more war-time shortages!)

Given the property’s marshy location, the mixture was designed to keep mosquitoes and other insects away.

“The construction included a lab for JLB to continue his fish research while in Knysna,” said William’s wife, Jenny, in 2022. (Pers. comm.)

“When I arrived in the 1970’s, the lab was still pretty much as JLB had left it (he died in 1968), and I found lots of Reckitt’s Blue as well as paraffin primuses, tinned food, and instant NesTea and NesCafé left over from their fish collecting expeditions.”

Margaret had grown up in Indwe in the Eastern Cape. “Her family had no connection with the sea or Knysna, which made her proficiency in diving, collecting, and illustrating fish specimens [skills she acquired while working with her husband as an ichthyologist], all the more remarkable.

“She shared her memories of rowing JLB to Featherbed all the way from the Salt River house – which was no mean feat, but, as JLB was plagued with ill health resulting from the East African campaign in the First World War, she did most of the physical work in the partnership.

“The rowing trips to Featherbed were timed to catch the outgoing tide, and to return – always with a good catch – on the incoming tide. It was a tough gig nonetheless, and she was over the moon when JLB bought an aluminium boat with a Seagull outboard motor.

“A memory still sharp today was in December 1980, when William and I crossed the Heads in this little boat a month after our eldest daughter, Helen, was born. It was quite an interesting experience embarking with baby, corgi, picnic basket, etc., at the Pilot’s Jetty on the Eastern Head, and crossing the mouth against wind and tide (William’s Dad would not have approved!) to land at Coffin Bay for oysters and freshly caught elf cooked on the coals.”

JLB Smith and the coelacanth

JLB Smith is perhaps best-known by the general public for his work on the coelacanth – a fish thought to have been extinct for more than 65 million years, but which turned up (for the first time, as far as modern science was concerned) off the Chalumna River Mouth, near East London, in December, 1938.

JLB was enjoying a summer holiday with Margaret at the Blue House when he received the now famous letter from the curator of the East London Museum, Marjorie Cortenay-Latimer, advising him of the recovery of a “most queer-looking specimen” – which would turn out to be the coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae. (See: Knysna Museums: ‘The Coelacanth’)

Margaret, though, was pregnant with William:

‘We arrived at almost the same time – the coelacanth in December 1938 and I, six months later [on 25 June, 1939]. I was told that during the months preceding my arrival it was all hands to "the fish" so when I was born there were no baby clothes (thank heaven for a granny). Fortunately I was not born with scales as some had predicted! My earliest recollections were of two parents who did nothing but work, both at university and at home (which I assumed all parents did).‘ (William Smith in ‘The Annotated Old Fourlegs. The Updated Story of the Coelacanth.’ Bruton, 2018)

William would often later say that his lifelong interest in conservation was sparked by his early experiences fishing and collecting with his parents: during his holidays he spent hours fishing on the Knysna Lagoon, and in his Standard 8 year (year 10) he spent six months on one of his parents’ fish collecting expeditions in the Seychelles.

During William’s formative years, the Smiths worked on ‘The Sea Fishes of Southern Africa’ – which featured Margaret’s now famous illustrations, and which was published in 1945 – and, of course JLB wrote (amongst many others) his international best-seller,‘Old Fourlegs The Story of the Coelacanth,’ which he published in 1956, and which ran to six English editions and appeared in nine other languages, too. (Bruton, 2017)

The Knysna Heads was JLB’s favourite fishing destination – particularly, he loved the piece of land on the Western Head that features the double-pyramid-shaped Duiker Rock (now known as JLB Rock). He therefore bought this property in 1950 (Portion 60 of the farm Uitzigt 216), and in 1953 bought the neighbouring property on William’s behalf, when William was just 14 years of age (Portion 59 – commonly known as Featherbed Bay).

JLB financed these purchases out of the sales of his books, having “benefited from the publication of Old Fourlegs, as the book and its translations were very profitable.” (Bruton, 2017)

Like his Dad before him, William went on to study at university: first at Rhodes, where he completed two degrees – a Bachelor of Science and a B.Sc Hons (in chemistry) with distinctions in both – and then at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg campus), where he completed his master's degree in only five months in 1961.

Unlike his Dad, though, William decided he wasn’t cut out for the life of an academic, and instead went into industry and, later, into the business of supplementary education, establishing the famous South African Star Schools and The Learning Channel. (See, Knysna Museums: 'William Smith: Evolution of an educator')

Featherbed Nature Reserve: early beginnings

In the 1890s, the civil commissioner and resident magistrate in Knysna, Maximillian Jackson, established a Rocket Brigade to fire rockets with lifelines to ships in distress in The Heads.

Most of the Brigade’s equipment was carried on a stinkwood cart, which was housed in a Rocket Station at the harbour pilot’s house on the Eastern Head (near today’s White Beacon at Fountain Point), but Jackson wanted access to the Western Head, too. For this, he arranged for “free labour from the gaol” (Parkes & Williams, 1988) to build a path from the site of the present-day stone jetty (Smith’s Jetty) to the top of Needles Point, where a tripod – from which the rockets could be launched – was erected. A similar tripod was also erected on the Eastern Head.

“A figure of £20 compensation to the Duthies [then owners of the Western Head] was agreed upon and a notarial deed to the effect was duly drawn up. This gave the Government the legal right in perpetuity, to use the footpath for port purposes in connection solely with the saving of lives.” (Parkes & Williams, 1988)

Although the Brigade, which was made up of “many a prominent townsman” (Parkes & Williams) used the path during only one attempted rescue – in June, 1897, when the 440 ton, 3-masted barque, Fredheim, went down in The Heads – rocket drills did take place from time to time until well into the 1920s, after which the project was abandoned altogether.

As an aside: Guests on the Featherbed walk in the early years may remember passing an old white pear tree trunk carved with the date, ‘1897.’ It was supposed that this carving had been made in the year the Rocket Path was opened. (See ‘Court Case Gate’ below.)

By the 1970s, the Rocket Path had become overgrown. Since controlled access would be necessary if Featherbed was to be protected as a nature reserve, the Smiths decided to reopen the path, and to use it as part of their plan for managed public access to the property. At the time William envisioned running a hand-built, narrow-gauge train along the edge of the lagoon to the caves.

“But,” said Jenny, “Ever since JLB Smith had purchased the land, the family had experienced local opposition to any effort to protect it and its coastline from uncontrolled access by trespassers.”

The community viewed the unoccupied property as ‘their own’ for picnics and, unfortunately, for other not-so-innocuous activities – including poaching, snaring of blue duiker, removal of indigenous trees, the stripping of rocks for bait, and general vandalism. Trespassers also posed a serious danger of unattended fires.

“Based purely on speculation about the nature of our ideas, some vocal community members, including members of the local branch of the Wildlife Society, repeatedly raised the attention of the authorities, and we were subjected to unnecessary ‘investigations’ by the local Divisional Council, the Knysna Municipality, etc. This escalated to higher levels of authority in the Cape Province, and we had to resort to unnecessary and costly legal help to address ‘local concerns’.

“William loved the land and feared the unwarranted attention might raise the spectre of expropriation – which had been mooted while his father was alive – ostensibly ‘to protect a public landmark’.

“When we started our conservation efforts, virtually any activity – even simply clearing invasive alien vegetation – was criticised, and we had to resort to litigation to protect our rights,” said Jenny. “At the time some residents battled with the concept of Knysna becoming a tourist destination, and preferred it as a retirement village.”

Using an official aerial photograph, for example, the Smiths were able to refute claims that they had ‘pushed a sand bank 40 feet into the lagoon’ – and to prevent further disputes, and since the tidal highwater mark is always something of a moving target, the Surveyor General placed straight-line boundaries along the water’s edge of Portion 59.

“We learned that, under existing provincial legislation, landowners could not be denied access to their properties, and a railway line was seen as a method of access. There was no road access at that time, and we wanted to explore the possibility of a narrow-gauge line along the coast to the caves as we thought it would be less damaging than a road,” said Jenny.

The Smiths’ application was successful, and the right to construct a railway line was published in the Government Gazette in 1979. The plans for William’s railway were helped along by Jenny’s father, Gerald Charles Bailey, whose work in civil construction at RACEC included rail-building, and who sourced track that had been salvaged from the Laingsberg floods, which had destroyed a portion of the mainline between Beaufort West and Cape Town on the 25th of January, 1981.

“We set out to protect this unique property with the erection of game fences,employing permanent staff, introducing a blue duiker breeding programme, managing alien and indigenous vegetation, etc., and, having met all the required criteria, Featherbed was registered by Cape Nature Conservation as a private nature reserve by 1985 – a rarity at the time.”

Featherbed also received recognition from the South African Natural Heritage Programme, which was founded by the then Department of Environmental Affairs in 1984, and which was “aimed at encouraging and assisting private landowners in the country to conserve the natural environment on their property.” (Steyn, 2001)

Designated Heritage Site 59, the Reserve certainly met the qualification criteria for the Programme, which included the presence of sensitive habitat, threatened or endangered species, and/or outstanding natural features. (Unfortunately, the plaque commemorating Heritage Site 59 was lost when the Reserve’s restaurant was burned down in the 2017 Knysna Fires. For the story of the rehabilitation of Featherbed after the fires, see knysnafeatherbed.com.)

“Receiving nature reserve status and the Heritage Programme plaque were important to us because the incredible official recognition we were getting for our conservation efforts countered all the negative reaction we were getting locally,” said Jenny.

The government abandoned the South African Natural Heritage Site Programme some time in the early 2000s.

Mike van Rooyen, Samson Ngalo, and the Featherbed conservation team

After a visit to Zimbabwe in 1983 to find a suitable game warden to manage the Reserve and oversee the building of necessary infrastructure – including anticipated bridges and tunnels for the railway line – the Smiths appointed Mike van Rooyen, who had, amongst other things, worked on Operation Noah, the wildlife rescue mission that ran from 1958 to 1964 to save more than 6,000 mammals from the rising waters of the Zambezi River after the construction of the Kariba Dam.

One of van Rooyen’s early tasks was the erection of a game fence on the western and northern borders of portions 59 and 60, thus defining Featherbed Nature Reserve as we know it today. (In 1985, and in order to secure future land access to the reserve, William and Jenny acquired a third property: Portion 58 – the parcel between the Reserve fence and the communication towers on the Brenton Peninsula.)

Houses were built on the Reserve for van Rooyen and for his foreman, Samson Ngalo (see below). van Rooyen left the reserve in the early 1990s, after which his house was occupied by the several permanent managers and wardens who succeeded him, and who continued his conservation efforts. It was destroyed in the Knysna Fires of 2017 without loss of life.

“Our aim was to sensitively develop and protect the property by alien eradication, indigenous planting, and wildlife conservation, and then to introduce visitors at a later stage,” said Jenny.

“Both of us worked very hard in Johannesburg, and every spare cent went into this plan.

“William had made the decision to go the eco-tourism route because he believed that poverty and conservation never went together.

“By selling the beauty of the land to visitors, he hoped to secure an income and thus guarantee Featherbed’s future without the need for development.”

“Although in the end we never did build the railway, we did use the tracks in our jetty seawall foundations,” she said.

The construction of these seawall foundations – and much of the other infrastructure on the Reserve – was largely the work of Samson Ngalo, who, as noted, served as the reserve’s foreman under warden Mike van Rooyen, and his successors.

“I started working for the Smiths in Gauteng in December 1978 when I was 16 years old, and moved permanently with my family to Featherbed in about 1985,” said Samson. “I left for about two years to go and work in Graaff-Reinet, but I came back in 1992 after my father passed away, and stayed at Featherbed until 2021.”

Overseeing the labour working on the Reserve, Samson was instrumental in, amongst other things, building the water reticulation infrastructure, opening the roads, erecting the fences, clearing firebreaks, and building both the abseiling tower at Thy Kingdom Come, and the quad bike trail for SEAL Adventures. (See below.)

“Samson was prepared to do whatever was needed, and we had an excellent rapport,” said William. “He guarded the property, and protected the fauna and flora fiercely.”

First concessionaires: Mike Goldberg and Sherley Gilson

Around the time of Mike van Rooyen’s appointment, Mike Goldberg, a businessman from Johannesburg, moved with his partner, Sherley Gilson, to Knysna.

On settling in the town in 1983, the Goldbergs acquired Lagoon Charter Cruisers, a houseboat rental business that had been established by local businessmen, Louis Wessels and Bev Dix-Peek, some years earlier.

As an additional attraction on the lagoon, Mike commissioned a 45-seat, catamaran-hulled, fibreglass ferry – which he christened ‘Spirit of Knysna’ – from Z-Craft in Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal, a yard that was well-known for its ‘Invader’ range of ski-boats.

Mike and Sherley began offering oyster cruises from their base next to the municipal slipway and across the road from the Knysna Angling and Diving Association (KADA) clubhouse on the north shore of the lagoon. (Now known as Cruise Café, this property remains the departure point for all trips to Featherbed Nature Reserve. See ‘Cruise Control and Cruse Café’ below.)

“When Mike approached us for permission to use a small part of Featherbed to allow the passengers on his lagoon cruises to land for braais under the trees, the timing was right,” said Jenny.

“We suggested to him that just hanging around in the area of the beach would be boring, and that we should expand the idea of lunch to include a 4x4 trailer ride to the top of the Western Head, and a supervised, guided walk back down again.

“If we cleared paths and put steps into the steeper areas, virtually anyone could enjoy the 2,2 km downhill walk with its spectacular views.”

“If he as the operator could attend to the guests in a managed way and with minimum impact on the environment, this would leave us free to continue with the establishment of the Reserve, while still concentrating on our education business in Johannesburg.”

The launch of this very novel idea – which we now know as the Featherbed Eco-Experience – created a stir in the community of Knysna, especially since (as the locals would say in those days), the Smiths never allowed the public onto their property.'

Featherbed Nature Reserve: first tours

The first commercial tour of Featherbed Nature Reserve took place in 1984.

I (the writer of this article) was a young, newly-qualified horticulturist, and clearly remember joining William Smith, Mike Goldberg, the then harbourmaster of Mossel Bay, Captain Orazio Rebolini (who would ensure that the ferry conformed to maritime safety standards), and a handful of others on an exploratory walk from the milkwood forest above the Featherbed Beach (now the Food Forest Restaurant), along the coast, and up the Old Rocket Path to the caves at JLB Rocks.

It was after this outing that William and Mike turned to me and said, “Go and learn the stories of The Heads, the shipwrecks, the maritime history, and the natural history of the area, and you can be our guide.”

Things were that casual in those days – I would only become a registered tourist guide years later, when the profession was formalised.

Our first tours were pretty informal, too. I would board our guests onto Spirit of Knysna at our jetty on the north shore (now Cruise Café); on our way across the lagoon, Sherley would serve champagne and orange juice, oysters and pâtés, and fresh, home-baked bread. And while this was happening Sherley’s son, Brandon Gilson, would drive with the catering team to Featherbed (via Belvidere and Brenton-on-Lake), vehicle and trailer loaded with everything they needed for a picnic and braai for a group of up to 45 people – fish, boerewors, bread rolls, salads, utensils, firewood, tables, chairs, water for drinking, water for washing up, mosquito spray, even chemical toilets – there to set up camp for the day under the milkwoods on the edge of the lagoon.

When the guests arrived at the Reserve, we’d disembark them via a gangplank directly onto the beach, and everyone walked up to a waiting vehicle – a left-hand-drive Dodge Ramcharger, Brandon at the wheel – which pulled an open personnel carrier (built by Mike’s son, Jeff Goldberg) up the sand road to the cliffs known as Thy Kingdom Come at the far end of the peninsula. (And boy! Was that a dusty ride!)

At the summit, guests could choose to walk back to the picnic site along the path – with me telling them stories along the way – or they could return to camp on the vehicle (not many chose this second option).

Although the walk can be completed quite quickly, we often lingered over it, savouring the views, the smells of the sea and the fynbos, and the many photo opportunities – and, since we only ran a single tour every day at first (and very rarely more than three tours a week), no one worried about how long it took the last walkers to complete the route.

Back at camp, Sherley served boerewors rolls and her famous ‘Featherbed Fish’ – individually wrapped portions of hake, sprinkled with spices and poached in lemon juice over the coals – and for drinks, fruit juice or Boplaas wines from Calitzdorp. In those days, Boplaas was Knysna’s closest wine producer, and we bought their products in (modest) bulk directly from the winemaker, who dispatched them to us via the steam train that ran between George and Knysna six days a week. It was usually my task to collect those boxes from the old SAR&H goods shed in the Knysna Station, behind the Knysna Yacht Club.

After ice cream and chocolate sauce, coffee and tea (water boiled on the braai fires), we’d board the guests again, and I’d cruise with them back to town on Spirit of Knysna – passing first across the river mouth for a good, long look at The Heads from the water.

During the Goldbergs’ tenure, they built a more permanent kitchen at Featherbed, and also installed rustic wooden picnic tables and benches for the guests’ dining comfort, while the Smiths built a brick-and-mortar toilet block with secure store – a necessary requirement when Mike later applied for a liquor license.

When business picked up, Mike also built a second ferry (in his back garden!), adapting the mold for the hull from the Lagoon Saloon, a houseboat that had been developed locally, and that had been in production at Thesen’s Knysna Boatyard until that company closed down in the early 80s.

Christened ‘Featherbed Ferry,’ this vessel carried 48 guests and two crew (skipper and deckhand), and boasted a boarding platform that lowered down from the bow onto the beach – a facility that wouldn’t be needed for long since William built the first wharf and floating jetty at Featherbed soon after the launch.

Court Case Gate

In the early days of the tour, the walk followed the lower half of the Rocket Path: from the top of Nature’s Arch – which still features in so many photographs of the trail – and down to Smith’s Jetty on the water’s edge. About half way down, almost next to the 1897 Tree mentioned above, the path came to a locked gate under a hand-carved sign: 'Court Case Gate.

This was a great favourite with the guides, who loved to tell the story as they opened the lock – and secured the gate again after the last guest had passed through:

One day in the early ‘60s, JLB Smith stopped four burly young men – freshly-caught fish in hand – at this gate on the Rocket Path. He was angry because they were trespassing on the property, and they in turn threatened him with violence – but they didn’t know that JLB’s own strapping young son, William, happened to be walking a little way behind him, and happened to be carrying a firearm, too (a necessary precaution since he’d recently had a run-in with another group of poachers – as we shall see).

Of course the four backed down – but not for long.

“Representing themselves as senior executives of the company that published Dad’s books, they sued me for pointing a firearm,” said William.

“The police allowed the charge to go ahead knowing full well that these young men had no idea who Dad was – they thought he was a simple bare-footed old fisherman.

“But the police also wanted to put me on the spot – or so they thought! – because I’d caught some of them poaching at the top of the property a couple of weeks earlier.”

It turned out to be a field day in the local magistrate’s court. The Smiths were happy to defend themselves – not least because they had an offer of help from Leslie Simon, a high-powered lawyer from Pietermaritzburg who was visiting Knysna at the time – but also because they wanted the facts made public. Amongst other things, the men had laid charges under false names, and they had used the land illegally to access the beach at the caves, where they’d caught their fish.

“The magistrate ruled that I had the right to protect my father with a licensed firearm – which, by the way, he said I had handled correctly at the scene – and that as landowners we were entitled to protect ourselves against trespassers and poachers. And he added that if I had shot the leader, I would have been ‘well within my rights,’ too.

“The men were censured for misrepresentation, and asked not to visit the district of Knysna again,” said William.

“This incident helps explain William’s reasons for being very bloody-minded about any perceived interference with his rights as a landowner, and it shaped much of his manner and approach in later years,” said Jenny.

“People resented JLB’s – and later, William’s – control of the paths with locked gates. But with no visible house on the land, many people believed that the property was unoccupied, or that the public could explore and go to the caves or get to inaccessible fishing spots without permission.”

Although Court Case Gate stood at the foot of one of the cliffs at Featherbed, the Rocket Path continued southwards over one of the more sandy parts of the reserve. This slope began to become unstable some time in the late 80s, which prompted the Smiths to build a flight of steps from the top of Nature’s Arch down to the beach, and a boardwalk along the edge of Coffin Bay, which ended in a tunnel close to the point where the Rocket Path began.

The tunnel itself was guarded by a locked gate in later years. But, for the guides at least, it was a gate that didn’t have quite so interesting a story: it simply prevented trespassers from accessing Coffin Bay from the north, where the quieter water allowed for more convenient beach landings.

Although the tunnel never did become part of the proposed railway line, it is wide enough for a quad bike and trailer – which allows workers to deliver materials to the further reaches of the reserve, and which would be necessary if an emergency medical evacuation might be required.

The Featherbed Company in the 1990s and early 2000s

The Smiths parted ways with the Goldbergs in the early 90s, awarding the concession for the catering to Louis Simonis, and about a year later, to Louis’ son, Jerome Simonis, who ran it from 1993 until the sale of the business in 2008.

“We set out to improve on what Mike Goldberg started by upgrading the outdoor eating facilities, building better ferry boats, and buying up an existing floating restaurant: the John Benn,” said Jenny. (For details of the John Benn, see postscript.)

“William had demonstrated his interest in tourism when he was just 21, when he obtained sponsorship for, wrote, produced, filmed, and edited a 50-minute movie called ‘The Garden Route’ to promote the region.” (See below. Also see: showme.co.za, 2021)

“This interest came firstly from his love of the area, like his Dad, but also from his interest in conservation – he wanted people to enjoy his property, leave footprints, and take pictures, with the positive outcome of more visitors coming and enjoying more of what the Garden Route had to offer.

“William quickly bought into Mike Goldberg’s marketing efforts to attract people to the sleepy but very beautiful town where he had spent most of his life. He realised that a sustainable tourism destination would require locals visiting during the summer holidays, and internationals coming in the off-peak times.

“To achieve this, both Knysna and the Garden Route would need a greater number of tourism products, especially if the local towns wanted to feature on tour operators’ itineraries.”

William often attracted controversy with his own marketing: for instance, he chose an aerial shot of Knysna (with the name ‘Knysna’ prominently displayed) as his backdrop during his live teaching broadcasts on The Learning Channel – a move not approved by all local residents.

Although the family was living in Knysna by now (this was around 1993), William commuted weekly to his offices in Johannesburg, from where he made his live SABC TV broadcasts. But so successfully did he promote the Garden Route that it became common practice for businesspeople to live in Knysna and Plettenberg Bay, and commute to Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand on a weekly basis. (At least one academic study found that the development of these towns in the 1990s – which lead, for example, to the establishment of Knysna’s Oakhill private school, amongst others – was largely a result of this weekly migration.)

William partnered with other local attractions to jointly promote the range and number of activities in the area. These included the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe (the steam train that had by now become a tourist attraction in its own right), and The Waterfront at the Knysna Quays.

Featherbed also worked closely with the various accommodation associations, and with a number of local events organisers and adventure businesses (see below).

“William’s ambition was ahead of its time,” said Jenny. “In those early days, many small businesses believed that the natural beauty of the area was a sufficiently significant draw-card for tourism. But business was extremely seasonal, and only by bringing in international visitors could full-time jobs be created and sustained – and international visitors needed more activities.

“William always said, ‘We need to bring as many people to Knysna as possible, keep them in Knysna for as long as possible, and make them want to return as soon as possible’.”

The Waterfront was thus an important development for Knysna because it incorporated accommodation (The Protea Hotel Knysna Quays), as well as shopping and dining facilities, and it was also a departure point for boat trips on the lagoon – including William’s own ‘Three Legs’ cruises.

An aside: I was the skipper of Three Legs on its first trips from The Waterfront in 1999, having previously had the job of convincing the shopkeepers and restaurant-owners of the value of having the vessel depart from The Waterfront. They weren’t happy at first, thinking that, since we’d be taking potential guests out onto the water for 90 minutes at a time, those guests wouldn’t have time to shop and eat in the centre. Proud to say, they did – and the business owners quickly changed their minds.

The success of the Smiths’ overall plan for the Featherbed Company was reflected in the growth of the business. This required, in quick succession, upgrades to the vehicles that transported walkers to the top of the hill at the start of the walking trail – for which William built two people-carrying land-trains with three wagons each, each pulled by a powerful, open-topped Unimog 406 – and the construction of a rustic eating space, the ‘Food Forest Restaurant,’ under the same milkwoods where we’d entertained our first guests back in the day.

With a small museum dedicated to JLB Smith and Margaret Smith – and the coelacanth, of course – the new restaurant boasted a professional kitchen, offices, a service bar, a buffet area, and, on the upper level, an events and conference room.

And then in the early 2000s, William designed and ordered a new floating restaurant: ‘Paddle Cruiser’ – the only working paddle-powered vessel in South Africa. (See postscript).

Built in Cape Town and delivered by sea, Paddle Cruiser entered the Knysna Heads in 2003 in time to host the media launch of the President’s Cup, an international golfing event that took place in November of that year at the Fancourt Hotel and Country Club in George.

Featherbed skippers and their training

As the size of the fleet grew, the role of the skippers of the various ferries and floating restaurants became central to the success of the operation – not least because of the need for passenger safety, but also in order to ensure that services ran punctually, and that the guests’ experiences were always as pleasant as possible.

Legally, the licensing of skippers was originally the responsibility of the Marine Division of the Department of Transport, but since April 1998, this task has been the job of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) – which also anually inspects and licenses all the company’s craft.

Here again, William applied his ability as a teacher, training the skippers on the ferries, and upskilling the skippers on the John Benn. Later, on acquiring Paddle Cruiser, he also taught Stanley van Rooyen and Floyd Herwels for the Class 6 tickets they needed in order to pilot the 120-passenger vessel.

Helen, who shared her father’s gift for teaching, was also responsible for training a number of young people – who had begun their careers as deckhands – as skippers on the yacht Heads Explorer. (See postscript: ‘William Smith and his beloved boats – The Featherbed Skippers’).

Jerome Simonis and the Featherbed team

The creation of a major tourism attraction requires two vital components: a great location, and a team of great people.

Chief among these people, said William, was “a very remarkable youngster: Jerome Simonis, who was loyal, honest and very hard working to help deliver on all the various ventures.”

Jerome’s company, F&B Catering, provided Featherbed – and, later, its floating restaurants – with meals and hospitality services from the early 1990s.

“He rose to the challenge in terms of delivering the Food Forest Eco-experience, but also because he had the reserve’s best interest at heart,” said William. “His understanding of teamwork ensured that all activities ran well for our visitors, and that safety, quality, and the protection of the reserve were always priorities.

“He grew a wonderful team, sourced from the local community, who became fantastic skippers, chefs, guides, baristas, and barmen.”

At the time Jerome took control of F&B Catering, the Featherbed Experience rarely attracted more than one boatload of guests a day – “About 48 people at a time, with Josie Jacobs as our skipper on the Featherbed Ferry,” said Jerome.

“And we panicked! How were we going to feed everyone?

“But demand grew quickly, and with the addition of three other restaurants – John Benn, Cruise Café, and Paddle Cruiser – we had to grow pretty quickly, too, until, at the time of the sale, F&B Catering was employing 150 people,” with Featherbed alone catering to more than 600 people a day at its busiest.

According to journalist Cathy Dipnall, “With his energy and enthusiasm, it is not surprising to hear that Jerome still has the time to run his own staff soccer team who, despite erratic working hours, has managed to win a few games. He has also been an active member of the local NSRI for six years.” (And is currently – 2022 – station commander at NSRI Station 12, Knysna.)

“High standards and innovative menus have won his restaurant accolades, from being ‘Best Restaurant’ at the Knysna Oyster Festival in 2005 [and best stand at the 2004 Festival], to having the best oyster dish at this year's [2008] festival.” (Dipnall, 2008)

As mentioned, Jerome sold F&B Catering to the Smiths in 2008. He later purchased, and still (2022) manages East Head Café – and daily enjoys its commanding views of Featherbed Nature Reserve and the Western Head of the Knysna Lagoon.

Debbie Stanley and Eco-Ed

With her love of local history and the fauna and flora of the reserve, Debbie Stanley joined Featherbed as a tourist guide in 1993, rising quickly to become chief guide responsible for training the many site guides that worked at the reserve. (‘Site guide’ is the official designation for guides who work at only one, given destination – like Featherbed – as opposed to regional or national guides, who lead or accompany tour groups through multiple destinations.)

Debbie was also responsible for researching, designing, and erecting informative boards along the walk, with stories about the names and uses of many of the bulbs, shrubs, and trees of the Knysna Sands Fynbos and Albany thicket that comprise the natural vegetation of the reserve. (See ‘Featherbed Conservation’. Also: Hatchuel, 2020).

“After a while as a guide, and having trained and qualified as a high school teacher, I wanted to start something on my own to provide environmental experiences and eco-education for school children, and I asked William if I could continue to work with Featherbed if I did so,” said Debbie.

“That’s when he suggested that I should combine with Star Schools to bring school tours to the Knysna area.

“I set up Eco-Ed and arranged four-day and five-day educational programmes that included accommodation and various excursions to places like Birds of Eden in The Crags near Plettenberg Bay, and Cango Caves near Oudtshoorn – and, of course, every programme included a visit to Featherbed Nature Reserve, with a ferry ride on the lagoon, a trailer ride to the top of the mountain, and a guided walk along the coast back to the start, where we usually served hamburgers or boerewors rolls to the kids.

“It wasn’t just touring, though – we required the kids (mostly 12- to14-year-olds) to answer questionnaires after each excursion, focusing on the educational value of their visits.”

“A special highlight for any school group would be to have William skippering the ferry and entertaining them with his storytelling,” said Debbie.

“It was all about creating holistic, fun learning experiences that were achieved through a collaborative approach that included many other tourism partners, as well as William’s innovative marketing ideas for the Garden Route.”

With The Learning Channel’s links to schools, word spread quickly.

“The teachers would phone us at Featherbed with their enquiries, and from there I would take over and make all the arrangements,” said Debbie.

“William gave me that independence, and that allowed Eco-Ed to give thousands of school kids from all around the country very exciting holidays in the Garden Route.”

Although Debbie left Featherbed in 1999, she continued working in environmental educational and tourist guide training in Knysna and the Garden Route (King, 2015) – but she rejoined the company in 2005 to help with marketing, event management, and staff training.

Leaving again in 2009, she was joined by Hatti Thesen – daughter of the author and naturalist Hjalmar Thesen (The Echoing Cliffs, Bond of the Sea, Country Days, etc.) – to offer environmental education and other environmental experiences from their base in a restored and converted, 150-year-old hotel (The Old Coach House) in the indigenous forests near The Poort, between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay.

“Hatti created a natural history museum there in honour of her father, and educated many learners on the importance of conservation of the ecosystems and endemic mammals of the Southern Cape.”

“Our collaborations with companies like Eco-Ed and other attractions such as the Knysna Elephant Park helped increase the number of bednights sold in the Garden Route during low seasons,” said Jenny.

S.E.A.L. Adventures: Chris & Nynette Heynderickx

In the mid-1990s, William approached the young Chris and Nynette Heynderickx, founders of the adventure tourism business, SEAL Adventures (Sea, Earth, Air, Land), which offered tours of the Kaaimans Gorge, the Knysna Forest, and the Knysna Lagoon.

“William wanted to tap into the backpackers market and recognised that the rather sedate Featherbed experience was a little too tame for that niche,” said Nynette. “So when he saw us out and about on the lagoon, he invited us to the reserve to have a look around, and he asked us to structure our adventure trips to include Featherbed.

“When Chris suggested we should offer scheduled abseiling experiences, William had no idea what abseiling was. But his motivation was to attract a wider market, and he recognised that an element of excitement would help by bringing younger people to the reserve. So he gave us permission to set up two permanent, professionally anchored abseiling points on the cliffs at the caves and at Needles Point, and also helped by setting up seating areas for participants and spectators at both sites.”

A typical SEAL Adventures Featherbed tour included kayaking across the lagoon from Leisure Island, hiking to the caves, instruction and two descents at the 30-metre site at the caves, and, after walking further up the Rocket Path to Needles Point, one descent on the 80-metre-high site (and the return walk back up again…).

Later, William opened a third site – the 120-metre ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ at the cliffs on the southernmost point on the property – and also cleared a quad-biking track in a remote area of the Reserve to add another dimension to Featherbed’s adventure offerings for the younger market.

“Working closely with Jerome, SEAL Adventures helped grow the Reserve’s appeal, which, once again, fed into William’s stated aim of opening opportunities for the creation of permanent jobs, and for selling more bed nights in the area,” said Jenny.

SEAL Adventures ceased operations at Featherbed when the Reserve was sold in 2008.

Magnetic South: the Featherbed Trail Run

Although Featherbed, its conference room, and its four different restaurants hosted many a wedding, meeting, and get-together over the years, one series of events stands out for the rapturous reception it received in the press, and for the positive publicity it attracted for the reserve, and for Knysna as a whole: the Featherbed Trail Run.

Organised by Magnetic South, which belonged to the well-known, Knysna-based, South African adventure racing family of Mark and John Collins, and their wives, Belen Sanchez and Christine Collins, the series took place annually during the Knysna Oyster Festival, with the inaugural races run in 2008.

“The festival organisers wanted to address the problem of seasonality – the ten-day-long event tended to attract visitors on the weekends, but flagged in the midweek period – so we came up with the idea of an iconic race that would take place during that midweek period,” said Mark.

“And it worked! Together with other new races that were launched by other event organisers that year – and that we collectively called ‘The Big Five’ of the Oyster Festival – we were able to bring hundreds of athletes and their families to Knysna.

“And they generally stayed in local accommodation for at least two nights or more.”

The format of these timed races was unique: after registering at Cruise Café, the athletes were transported across the Knysna Lagoon by ferry to the race start, which was set up near the Food Forest Restaurant at Featherbed Nature Reserve. From there, they ran one of two trails – the 15 km Coelacanth or the 11 km Seahorse – which took them through the forests and fynbos of the Reserve and the Brenton Peninsula, then through the suburb of Brenton-on-Lake, and finally onto the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe railway bridge to cross the Lagoon to the finish back at Cruise Café.

The winner of that first Coelacanth in 2008, Piet Jacobs, posted a time of 54:53 – even though the “strikingly impressive coastal trail … includes a mind-numbing climb of 200m in under a kilometre to the top of Featherbed.” (sportsguide.co.za, 2015)

With limited slots on every race, meals served after every race (breakfast, lunch, or supper), and three departures a day for every race, the Featherbed Trail run became something of a cult classic, attracting national and even international athletes – and selling out usually within hours of opening on the online booking platforms. (Knysna-Plett Herald: ‘Salamon Featherbed Trail Run’, 21 July 2011; and ‘Running the Featherbed,’ 4 July 2012)

“Despite his enthusiasm for the idea of the event, William initially expressed reservations as to whether the technical nature of the trails on Featherbed could indeed be run,” said Mark

“I assured him it was a mathematical certainty.”

“The Featherbed Trail Run series continued every year for some time after our family ended its association with Featherbed, but it remains a significant example of how cooperation with local businesses benefits us all,” said Jenny.

Cruise Control and Cruise Café

When Mike Goldberg and Sherley Gilson acquired Lagoon Charter Cruisers in 1983, they took over the lease of a small, double-story, wooden building that housed the company’s offices, stores, and guest ablution facilities, and that was situated on the lagoonside property next to the municipal slipway described above.

In those pre-mobile-phone days, all the company’s houseboats, day boats, and water skiing craft were equipped for two-way communication with CB (citizen band) radios. In the protocol of that system, every radio had its own call sign – which was usually the name of the boat.

In the case of the offices of Lagoon Charter Cruisers, though, that call sign was, ‘Cruise Control.’

The lease on the property was passed along when Lagoon Charter Cruisers was sold to Southern Seas Charters, and finally acquired by the Smiths when they bought the John Benn.

In 1992, Martin (Snr) and Martin (Jnr) van Niekerk, who owned one of the oyster farms then operating on the lagoon – South Cape Oysters – converted the building into the 240-seat ‘Waterfront Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill.’

This facility also housed a ticket sales office for Featherbed and John Benn, as well as a subsidiary kitchen for the Benn.

When a fire razed the building in 1995 (Knysna-Plett Herald, 1994; “cause unknown” – van Niekerk, Jr., pers. comm.), the Smith’s business went through a period of uncertainty since no authority would give permission for rebuilding. The business was therefore forced to run operations for some years out of an old prefabricated site office and a number of shipping containers.

The legal details of the lease on the property were problematic because various organs of state claimed control of the land, and it took some effort to sort out the confusing and overlapping legislation they cited as their authorities. (This confusion is understandable. Photos in the Knysna Museum collection show the site as being under water at high tide at the time of the opening of the George-Knysna railway line in 1928, and since this same area was later used as a town dump, it’s now clearly reclaimed land.)

But when the spouses of the Commonwealth Heads of State visited Featherbed during the 1999 Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting (CHOGM – which resulted in the Fancourt Commonwealth Declaration on Globalisation and People-Centred Development), the delegates made the point that the temporary buildings and inadequate jetty weren’t in keeping with the quality of the outing to a major tourist attraction such as Featherbed.

“It might have been coincidental, but after the Commonwealth visit, there seemed to be a shift in the officials’ thinking, and we finally received the necessary approvals to upgrade and rebuild,” said Jenny.

Bright, light, and airy – thanks to large sliding glass doors that lead out onto an expansive wooden deck overlooking the lagoon – the new building was designed by Francois Bosman, and built by his company, Knysna Timber Homes, around the turn of the millenium.

With indoor dining for up to 70 guests, space for another 20 under a covered patio, and tables and benches under umbrellas on the deck for a further 40, the facility boasts large, professional kitchens with plenty of refrigeration and storage space, a ticket sales office, a curio shop, and (on the first floor) offices and a meeting room for the company’s administrative staff.

And its name? ‘Cruise Café,’ of course – a nostalgic reminder of the early days of ‘Cruise Control.’

“With a paved parking area that had room for as many tour coaches as the business could handle, and with an upgraded jetty with moorings for all our boats, we at last had amazing facilities that allowed us to host many events – big and small, on the lagoonside, on the water, and at Featherbed,” said Jenny.

With Cruise Café as the departure point for the Featherbed tours and Paddle Cruiser, and The Waterfront as the departure point for lagoon cruises on Three Legs and John Benn, this meant that the company was now able to offer a streamlined service to the growing numbers of visitors who wanted to experience the Knysna Estuary.

But Cruise Café wasn’t designed only with visitors in mind: it was large enough to serve both guests on their way to and from Featherbed, and locals who wanted a relaxing place to enjoy a coffee or a meal. It therefore quickly grew a large and loyal local following, and a reputation for excellent food – breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the year.

“Remember those Friday evenings with the Knysna Jazz Quartet?” said Jerome.

Lead by music teacher, surfer, and fine artist Waldemar van Wyk on bass, the Quartet included Johnathan Sweetman on drums, Paul Gibbings on guitar, and Martin van der Walt on tenor sax – and it often attracted other fine guest musicians, too, and always attracted large and appreciative crowds.

But the success of the restaurant wasn’t just a product of its position on the waterside, or of its carefully chosen entertainment, or of its outstanding wine list (Jerome made a particular study of wine, and included both boutique and popular labels in his selection): much time and effort went into training and mentoring of staff. A training committee ensured that everyone who dealt with guests in all four of the group’s restaurants received Level 1 Certificates in First Aid, and that all members of staff attended courses in firefighting, hygiene, customer awareness, and tourism.

(John Benn no longer operates from The Waterfront, and now – 2022 – departs from Cruise Café.)

Helen Smith: a new generation enters the fray

While the Smiths have three daughters – Helen, Jessica, and Bronwyn – it was Helen Smith (now Helen Wilson) who showed a singular interest in the business from an early age.

“I worked in the company in all areas from when I was about twelve or thirteen years old,” she said.

“I started as a deckhand, and helped out in the restaurants, in sales, in the front office, and in marketing. I also became the lead guide when I was around eighteen, and guided every holiday while I was at university.” (Her alma mater? Rhodes in Grahamstown, of course. She is a Smith, after all.)

Always keen on water sports – as a teenager growing up on the edge of the Knysna Lagoon, she won several windsurfing and sailing competitions – Helen sailed as first mate and navigator (“and skipper for the final thousand miles, too”) aboard one of the one hundred and ninety yachts from twenty three countries that took part in ARC2004 – the 2,700 nautical mile Atlantic Rally for Cruisers from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Rodney Bay, St.Lucia.

After her return to South Africa, Helen joined the family business full-time as its operations manager, where she put her many boating and sailing qualifications to good use.

She conducted in-house training in tourism awareness, customer service, and HIV/AIDS awareness, and also delivered basic first aid and basic fire fighting courses (for which she is a qualified trainer). But her favourite work remained on the water, training the company’s skippers for their U25 Ton (the license required for vessels of less than 25 gross tons) and U200 Commercial Endorsements, and as a radio license trainer for VHF offshore (via the Knysna Yacht Club).

“I helped with the training of all the skippers, although my Dad did most of the work with Stanley and Floyd when they studied for their tickets for Paddle Cruiser.

“But the most incredible story of success for me during my time at Featherbed was the training of Mninmzi ‘Bigboy’ Apileni.

“Bigboy came from an inland town in the Eastern Cape where he had never seen the ocean, let alone learned to swim. But he arrived wanting a position with us as a deckhand, and from the very beginning I could see that he had something special in him – a feel for the ferries, an overall seamanship that came naturally. He was extremely dedicated and desperately wanted to get his commercial U25 Ton license.

“This was a challenge because he hadn’t finished school.

“I spent hours with him, getting the required theory in place and training him on Three Legs and Spirit of Knysna.

"After two years of hard work he did obtain his U25 Ton license to finally skipper the Featherbed ferries – and he became one of our best and most consistent skippers.”

Helen left the Featherbed Company in 2009. Now a mother of two boys, she manages her own business in Perth, Australia: @wsinteriors_perth.

William Smith and Jenny Smith: sale of Featherbed

One of William’s favourite sayings in the early days was, “What do you call a person who lives in Knysna…?

“Lucky!”

By 1986 the Smiths had built a house for themselves at Featherbed, and by the mid-90s they finally achieved the long-cherished goal of basing the family permanently in Knysna.

“With Ouma (Mrs Bailey, Jenny’s mother) cooking and caring for our busy family, with a CB radio in our kitchen for contact with the business – and with one another – and with animals in the courtyard vying for our attention: tortoises and blue cranes that came to be hand-fed, and an orphaned and hand-reared Knysna loerie that used to land on my hand, and then follow William upstairs to join him in the shower … it was a wonderful time in our lives,” said Jenny.

But, of course, home life was only part of the picture, and Jenny – who also commuted to Johannesburg to work alongside her husband after they’d based themselves permanently at Featherbed – began to take an active interest in various regional and local government tourism marketing bodies. Serving on a voluntary basis from 1998 to 2005, she held (amongst others) posts as founding chairperson of Knysna Tourism, and as a director of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, which partnered with events like the 2003 President’s Cup and the World Cup Cricket Tour to promote the country in general, and the Western Cape Province in particular.

“My drive in my official and elected positions was the collective marketing of the destination - the Garden Route and Knysna in particular, but with the obvious links to Cape Town as a gateway,” said Jenny.

It was during this time that Knysna twice won the Engen Town of the Year competition – in the inaugural year (2000), and in 2003, when members of the public cast more than 2,5 million votes for their favorite city (Cape Town), town (Knysna), and village (Montagu). (iol, 2003)

“All credit to the municipality and its tourism operators for delivering excellent service, but those awards were proof of how far things had progressed from the sleepy little village it once was, to one that now punched well above its weight as a must-visit destination for South Africans and overseas visitors alike,” said Jenny.

While much of Featherbed’s success had to do with increased awareness of the potential of the Garden Route, especially during South Africa’s honeymoon period following the the birth of democracy in 1994, the Smiths made an effective team, each employing their respective strengths towards the common goal of increasing tourism, and thereby creating sustainable, permanent local jobs.

With the climate of interest in signature properties now at an all-time high, William and Jenny made the hard decision in 2007 to sell and move on. The timing seemed to make sense, too, since all their daughters were expressing interest in pursuing careers and studies overseas.

Having found the right buyer – whom they believed shared their approach to the conservation of the land – the Smith family sold the business and the Featherbed properties to businessman and entrepreneur Kobus Smit in 2008. (Bamford, 2008)

Key staff

“While many staff members made up the Featherbed experience with dedication and effort, special mention needs to be made of key staff members, some sadly now passed away, who went more than the extra mile in their efforts to fill the boats, especially in the early days when every passenger was needed,” said Jenny:

Glenda Febb, who sold tickets at Cruise Control in the early days of John Benn, and
Toni Febb, who provided entertainment aboard John Benn;
Estee Barnard and Rochelle Combrinck, Featherbed’s sales managers at The Waterfront;
Patience Mhlauli-Mjamba, who managed reservations for all the company’s restaurants, boats, and tours from her post at Cruise Control; and
“The A Team – Dianne Pepler, Elenore Pienaar and Rianda Rabbets – who relocated from Jo'burg to bring professional energy and innovation, resulting in excellent growth in our functions business, and in business yields management.”

William Smith: biography

For William’s detailed biography, please see The Heritage Portal: ‘William Smith: Educator’ (Hatchuel, 2022).

The Featherbed Co. today

For information about the Featherbed Company today (eco-experiences, boat trips, restaurants, conservation, etc.), please visit knysnafeatherbed.com

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POSTSCRIPT: William Smith and his beloved boats - ferries, floating restaurants, and a yacht for the Knysna Heads

As we’ve seen, the rapid growth of Featherbed Nature Reserve demanded increased capacity for transporting guests to the Reserve – but as tourism to Knysna grew, the Featherbed Company also responded to other opportunities for adventures on the Knysna Lagoon.

Here are the stories of the boats operating at the time of the sale of the business in 2008, compiled with the help of the Smith family, and representatives of some of the yards that built the vessels. Forgive me if some of this history is incomplete: Spirit of Knysna (I) and Featherbed Ferry were sold off in the early days of the business, and many records have been lost – and many tides have come in and gone out – during the many years that have passed us by.

Floating restaurant m.v. John Benn

The Smiths acquired the 19.6 metre m.v. John Benn in 1991 (m.v. = ‘motor vessel’).

John Benn was designed and built by James Edwards of Lucky Bean Boat Yard, the Knysna boat building yard that had been founded by the legendary yacht designer, Jeff Schionning.

Originally commissioned by Piet du Plessis of Southern Seas Charters – which would eventually acquire Lagoon Charter Cruisers (the Featherbed catering business was by now run separately) – this catamaran-hulled vessel is constructed of phenol-bonded ply and Japanese cedarwood (Knysna-Plett Herald, 1988), and is equipped with bars and dining areas on its upper and lower decks, and with galley and catering facilities for 100 passengers.

According to the vessel’s maker’s plate, John Benn was launched on 16 November 1988, construction having begun on the 14 of August of that year. The hull and lower deck were built at Lucky Bean in the Industrial Area, and were then transported by road to the municipal slipway for launch. After the hull was splashed, the upper deck was built, and the outfitting was completed on the water.

All work was complete by the 14th of December - in other words, in just four months.

The vessel was built in close collaboration with Captain Emilio Carlos de Sousa, the Chief Officer of the Transport Department, Marine Division, Mossel Bay, the authority responsible for issuing the safety regulation certificate (Knysna-Plett Herald, 1988). (de Sousa was well known for having been captain of the replica of Bartolomeu Dias’ caravel, that had been built in Portugal, and then sailed from Lisbon to Mossel Bay to mark the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Dias on South African soil on 3 February, 1488).

Although Edwards expected the m.v. John Benn to have only a limited life, regular annual inspections by the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) have found that the hull remains structurally sound, and, thanks to excellent maintenance, the vessel continues to serve the Featherbed Company today.

Rivercat Ferries: Three Legs & Spirit of Knysna

To support the tours of Featherbed Nature Reserve, William designed and launched two aluminium catamarans – which he dubbed ‘Rivercat Ferries’ – in the late 1980s and early ‘90s: ‘Three Legs,’ and ‘Spirit of Knysna.’

Both vessels were built by Stirling Yachts in Cape Town.

Three Legs came first, and featured three retractable hydraulic rams (legs) which were designed to push down onto the floor of the lagoon in order to raise the entire craft for the purpose of safely loading and unloading passengers.

The vessel was featured on the TV programme Beyond 2000 (now Beyond Tomorrow) in the mid-90s. (Knysna-Plett Herald, 1994)

Although William hoped that Three Legs would be allowed to dock at the old pilot’s jetty north of the White Beacon on the Eastern Head (which had no floating platform for safe embarkation), SANParks, as managers of the Knysna Estuary, objected to the use of the legs, and the plan was scrapped. Instead, Three Legs was employed to provide 90-minute cruises on the lagoon, departing four or five times a day from The Waterfront at the Knysna Quays.

Three Legs was licensed to carry 80 passengers, and was also used to ferry passengers to Featherbed Nature Reserve when needed. (This vessel is currently – March, 2022 – mothballed as a result of the downturn in global tourism, and pending upgrades to her hull.)

The more conventional, 120-seat ‘Spirit of Knysna’ – the second of her name, and the main transport for Featherbed Nature Reserve’s walking tours – was launched soon after Three Legs, either in 1992 or 1993.

Knysna's Paddle Cruiser: Featherbed's second floating restaurant

Believing that the John Benn might be approaching the end of its useful life, William commissioned the 120-passenger ‘Paddle Cruiser’ (PC) from Two Oceans Marine Manufacturing, Cape Town, in the early 2000s.

“She’s based on a 22 m sewn glass fibre Bobcat hull, which forms the platform for a high-speed craft used as a high-speed Navy patrol vessel. However, for more stability, in the case of the Paddle Cruiser the base hull has been widened by almost a metre. Draught is 1,4 metres, length 22,7 metres, beam 7,5 metres, and gross tonnage 176.” (Popular Mechanics: Doman, 2004)

At launch, Paddle Cruiser was propelled by twin 135 kW turbodiesel engines that drove its two maritime propellers, which were specially imported from the UK. The paddles are electrically driven, with power supplied by twin 70 kVa diesel electric generators – which also supply the vessel’s power needs as a restaurant.

According to William, “The project became feasible with the very fortunate sourcing of just the right two sets of engines at just the right time from Caterpillar in Cape Town.”

Rod Delaney, owner of Two Oceans Marine when Paddle Cruiser was built, said, “we launched PC in 2003, around August.

“SAMSA insisted that we tow the vessel from Cape Town to Knysna, and that only then could she enter the lagoon under her own power, as towing through the Heads was not deemed to be safe.” (Delaney, pers. comm. 2022)

Among the safety conditions imposed for the tow: all openings on the lower deck (windows, etc.) had to be sealed against water ingress.

“A small tug boat (the 16-metre ‘Hawk’) towed PC up from Cape Town to Knysna in November 2003, and on 20 November Mark Delany (who now owns Two Oceans Marine), and a small crew (including Jerome Simonis and the Smith’s daughter, Helen) were transferred aboard outside the Heads.

“There was a reasonable swell running, but PC entered under her own steam at the maximum 11 knots, on the high tide.”

After boarding William from the jetty at Featherbed, Paddle Cruiser headed upriver to her dedicated mooring at the jetty at Cruise Café.

Commercial operations began in December 2003.

“Sadly the vessel used for the tow was lost with all hands somewhere off the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast shortly after the PC tow,” said Rod.

The Hawk went missing en route from Richards Bay to Cape Town in November, 2006. All four members of the crew lost their lives. (Rall, 2006; Sowetan, 2006)

The yacht Heads Explorer

In 2004, the Smiths decided to add yacht trips through The Heads and out to sea to expand the company’s bouquet of products. After a trial period during which they leased the yacht Zakat, skippered by Derek Meintjies, from a local businessman – and given Helen’s sailing experience – they decided to commission a vessel for the Featherbed fleet.

After researching many South African yacht builders, Helen chose Cape Town’s Voyage Yachts, which was already producing a model called the Voyage DC45 that could be kitted out for 36 passengers on lagoon cruises and 12 passengers on trips out to sea.

Heads Explorer was thus commissioned early in 2005 – a Voyage DC45 customised for conditions in Knysna and designed to the Smiths’ specifications – and launched in October 2005.

During a month of sea trials in Cape Town, Helen assembled a crew to sail the yacht to Knysna. Members included David Wilson – a crew-mate at the time, but now her husband – as well as Clive Dick, her sailing mentor and yacht master examiner for the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) and SAS (South African Sailing), and also two skippers-in-training from the Royal Cape Yacht Club, and the young Randall Kamfer, a deckhand-in-training from Knysna.

When everything was ready and a weather window presented itself, Heads Explorer left Cape Town for Knysna.

“It was a good rounding of Cape Point, with the only issue being a storm front approaching as we neared the Knysna Heads,” said Helen. “The crew jumped into action, and Heads Explorer was pushed to its maximum to make it through the mouth in time.

“We achieved nearly 20 to 25 knots on the hull in the last few miles into Knysna, but Heads Explorer has an incredibly well designed racing hull that was perfect for the running sea we encountered.”

The yacht was received with much fanfare in her new home, with Paddle Cruiser, John Benn, Spirit of Knysna, and Three Legs all milling around inside the mouth to greet the new addition to the fleet.

With assistance from Theo Beens (with his many years of valuable seagoing experience) as a relief skipper, Helen retained her responsibility as the main skipper of Heads Explorer until 2009, always bringing her sense of excitement – and sharing it with her passengers – when, conditions permitting, she was able to sail again through the Knysna Heads. (See “Featherbed’s Skippers’ below.)

“Our sunset cruises were probably the most popular, but it was also always a special occasion to see wildlife – whales, orcas, dolphins, and sometimes even rarer species of pelagic birds – on those magical days out at sea,” she said.

“One of our most incredible experiences was when we took an American group to sea during the annual sardine run – which happened to coincide with a cold water upwelling that caused a feeding frenzy, with a massive pod of dolphins that must’ve been a thousand strong, as well as humpback whales and great white sharks that were breaching. One of the sharks came right up to the stern of the vessel and rolled in the water right next to us – and many of our guests thought we’d orchestrated it!”

Besides scheduled cruises, Heads Explorer was also used to host photo shoots and special events – including the reception for one of South Africa’s first same-sex weddings.

“The decision to build the boat turned out to be the right one – Heads Explorer was so successful that the company recouped its build cost in just three years,” said Helen.

Heads Explorer is no longer part of the Featherbed Company fleet. It is currently managed by Kevin and Rika Fouche.

Featherbed's skippers

Skippers who served under the Smiths included:

Martin Hatchuel – Spirit of Knysna (I and II); Featherbed Ferry; Three Legs
Josie Jacobs – Spirit of Knysna (I); Featherbed Ferry
Davey May – Spirit of Knysna (I); Featherbed Ferry
Dawie Venter – Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs
Cornelius ‘Nalla’ Sinclair – John Benn; Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs (watch a 2010 conversation between Cornelius and Martin on YouTube)
Charles de Smidt – John Benn
Joe Marsicano – John Benn
Floyd Herwels – Paddle Cruiser; John Benn; Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs
Stanley van Rooyen – Paddle Cruiser; John Benn; Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs
Jacques Wabanie – John Benn, Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs; Paddle Cruiser
Avril Wabanie – Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs (Having been trained to drive Unimogs in the military, Avril also drove them when they were introduced to pull the guest trailers at Featherbed)
Monte Ndevo – Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs
Derik Meintjes – Zakat (see ‘Heads Explorer’ above)
Helen Smith – Heads Explorer; Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs
Theo Beens - Heads Explorer
Mninmzi ‘Bigboy’ Apileni: Spirit of Knysna; Three Legs (see above: ‘Helen Smith: A new generation enters the fray’)
Vladimir Boshoff – Heads Explorer
John Bevan – Heads Explorer
Leon Hetjies – Heads Explorer

Selected references

Anon.: ‘John Benn to sail again,’ Knysna-Plett Herald, 27 October, 1988
Anon.: ‘Go-ahead for Featherbed Ferry,’ Knysna-Plett Herald 6 August, 1992
Anon: ‘Oyster bar destroyed by fire,’ Knysna-Plett Herald, 27 October, 1994
Anon.: ‘Old Three Legs on Beyond 2000,’ Knysna-Plett Herald, 24 November, 1994
Anon.: ‘W Cape tops in 'most popular' competition,’ iol, 20 February, 2003
Anon.: ‘Missing Hawk crew feared lost at sea, says rescue unit,’ Sowetan, 16 November 2006
Anon.: ‘VIDEO: A trip down memory lane – Garden Route (1960),’ showme.co.za, 30 November 2021
Bamford, Helen: ‘Maths boffin sells the heads’ iol, 16 August, 2008
Bruton, Mike. ‘The Fishy Smiths: A Biography of JLB and Margaret Smith,’ Penguin Random House, Cape Town, 2018
Bruton, Mike: ‘The Annotated Old Four Legs The Updated Story of the Coelacanth,’ Struik Nature, Cape Town, 2017
Delaney, Rod, Two Oceans Marine Manufacturing: email, 2022
Dipnall, Cathy: ‘Jerome Simonis shares his passion for Knysna and its people,’ CX Press, 25 June, 2008
Doman, Anthony: ‘Paddle Power - Bygone-era style meets high-tech in Knysna’s new riverboat,’ Popular Mechanics, June 2004
Hatchuel, Martin: ‘William Smith: Educator’ The Heritage Portal, 2022
Hatchuel, Martin, and Theo Stehle, with Ferdi van Berkel: ‘Invasives and indigenous: Changing patterns of plant growth on the hills of the Knysna Basin’ 2020
King, Elaine: ‘Finding aspirant guides’ X-factor in Knysna,’ Knysna-Plett Herald, 12 November, 2015
Parkes, Margaret, & Williams, V.M.: ‘Knysna the Forgotten Port,’ Emu Publishers, Knysna, 1988
Rall, Se-Anne: ‘Missing vessel presumed sunk’ iol 17 November, 2006
Smith, Jenny: emails (various), 2022
Smith, Margaret M.: ‘J.L.B. Smith: His life, work, bibliography and list of new species' Department of Ichthyology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Occasional Paper No. 16, June, 1969
Smith, Margaret M.; Heemstra, Phillip C.: ‘Smiths' Sea Fishes,’ J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology, Grahamstown, 1986
Smith, William: ‘The Garden Route’ (film, 1960), YouTube, 19 February, 2016
Steyn, Phia: ‘Environmental management in South Africa: twenty years of governmental response to the global challenge, 1972-1992’ Historia 46(1), May 2001

Additional resources

Knysna Museums: ‘Maritime Collection’
Margaret Mary Smith, biography
Western Cape Government Oral History Project: interview with Martin Hatchuel

ARTICLE PUBLISHED 17 APRIL, 2022. Author: Martin Hatchuel martinhatchuel@gmail.com

Download the text of this article here (.pdf 213 kb)

Book launch: It's a Pity I didn't Bring any Swords

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Tapas & Oysters Knysna

Thank you Andrew and your entire crew for an awesome adventure in the rain!

Visit Tapas & Oysters Knysna here

Blake Linder, Knysna-Plett Herald

'Hatchuel said in his interview that he recommends the book for "kids from nine to ninety-nine", and that the history of the area is rich with opportunities for works of fiction.'
'Originally planned for the playground at the Thesen Harbour Town venue, the party had to be moved indoors due to heavy rain - but, as most of the guests remarked, the weather was appropriate to the story.'

Read Blake Linder's article, "Knysna author launches children's adventure novel" here.

Sagree Chetty and SABC News

Thanks reporter Sagree Chetty, cameraman Sphiwe Hobasi, and SABC News for the awesome video above.

Meet the witches in ‘It’s a Pity I didn’t Bring any Swords’

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0200

A pair of witches with the glorious names of Hecate and Elsine command two of the ships that sail under the orders of the ghostly Hendrick van der Decken - the Flying Dutchman - in the novel, ‘It’s a Pity I didn’t Bring any Swords.’

But who were (are) these gorgeous ghouls in real life?

Hecate and Spirit of Fredheim

The witch Hecate, commander of Spirit of Fredheim, comes in the form of a cat: “sleek and black and slinky” … her soft fur “silvery in the semi-darkness” … her eyes “greener than any grass he’d ever seen, greener even than Dad’s lawns after a summer rain” … her pelt throwing “little sparks of light when she touched him.”

In myth and legend, though, “Hecate was the chief goddess presiding over magic and spells” (britannica.com).

Dating back to the religion of the early Greeks – or even earlier – Hecate was the daughter of the titan Perses and the nymph Asteria, and held power over the heavens, the earth, and the sea.

Since she had witnessed the abduction to the underworld of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, Hecate was often represented as triple-formed, with three bodies back-to-back, three heads looking in all directions all at once – the better to see the crossroads where the deed took place – and with her hands holding blazing torches to guide the pack of vicious dogs who always accompanied her.

Hecate was worshipped as one of the deities that protected Athenian households, which is why she was generally associated with entry-ways – and why many homes had Hecate-shaped pillars called ‘Hecataea’ guarding their front doors.

So is it a coincidence that, in the novel, Hecate reveals herself for the first time to our heroes, Leaf and Blueberry, at the entrance to the companionway that leads down into the belly of the the huge old ship dry-docked in the Maritime Museum in Mossel Bay?

I think not.

For the story of the original Fredheim, which sank at the Knysna Heads in 1897, read, ‘How did the wreck of the Fredheim get into the novel, ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords?’

Elsine and Spirit of Seier

In ‘It’s a Pity I didn’t Bring any Swords,' the witch Elsine is, “A wild-looking, hugely decorated ghoul with long hair who perched lightly and proudly on the gunwales on Spirit of Seier, her hands on her hips, her wide, floppy, maroon-coloured hat splendid with ostrich and albatross feathers that shivered with every nod and shake of her head. She wore a deep orange cape that flew out from her broad, muscular shoulders; a dirty, billowy, cream-coloured shirt crossed twice with bandoliers and once with a yellow satin sash; a loose brown kilt; thick, dark velvet leggings; and high boots decorated with extravagant straps and bright golden buckles.”

Like Elsa and Alice, the name Elsine is a variant of Elizabeth – Elisabet in German and Dutch – but, except in ‘It’s a Pity I didn’t Bring any Swords’ (and possibly in Denmark, says NamesList), it's a name that isn’t much in use these days.

In myth and legend, though, Elsa (o.k., Elsine) appears as the daughter of the late Duke of Brabant in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s early 13th century epic poem, Parzival.

In Parzival, Loherangrin, a Knight of the Holy Grail, arrives in a boat pulled by a swan to defend the defenceless Elsa, who isn’t allowed to inherit her Dad’s kingdom on account of her not being a man. (They did that kind of thing in those days.)

Assuming the role of ruler of Brabant simply by marrying Elsa, Loherangrin warned his bride never to ask him his name. (They did that kind of thing in those days, too, apparently. Something to do with that Holy Grail of theirs.)

Elsa must’ve kinda fallen in love with the guy, though, because she did eventually overcome her curiosity and did eventually pose the forbidden question – which prompted hubby to board his swan-powered boat, and to sail immediately off into the night, never to return.

A disrespectful move that the real Elsine – the Elsine of 'It's a Pity I didn't Bring any Swords,' who ruled her kingdom with as firm a sword as any pirate in van der Decken’s fleet – would never have tolerated.

Read the story of the Seier, wrecked at Buffalo Bay in 1904, here: 'I t's a Pity I didn't Bring any Swords' and the wreck of the Seier' ~ Also: Why would a ghost ship smell?

It’s a Pity I didn’t Bring any Swords

Click here for info about the novel, ‘It’s a Pity I didn’t Bring any Swords.’ (Includes a list of stockists in Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, and Sedgefield.)

Buy ‘It’s a Pity I didn’t Bring any Swords’ online here

Photo of Hecate: Ben Green on Unsplash

Case study: Knysna Museums - the digital-to-history interface

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Knysna Museums: The digital-to-history interface

Challenge

The Knysna Museum, which is owned by the Knysna Municipality, is spread over two separate properties in the CBD. Knysna also boasts a number of private museums, as well as one belonging to an NGO (NSRI), and one belonging to SANParks.

Knysna Municipality was desirous of upgrading the quality of information offered in its museum facilities, but had very little budget for doing so.

Knysna & Partners (the town’s destination management organisation at the time of initiation of the project) saw value in making local stories accessible to the widest possible audience.

Solutions

At the suggestion of the then CEO of Knysna & Partners, Greg Vogt, the municipality made budget available to research and write a web site for its own museums.

It was agreed that the site would host pages for other local museums, too, but that the costs of researching and writing those pages should be borne separately by those museums. The URL chosen for the site therefore indicates the plural: www.knysnamuseums.co.za

The project has so far been implemented in four stages, and over four budget years

1: Website- built on the Springnest platform, a content management system developed in South Africa for small businesses in the tourism sector. See: www.tourismcontent.co.za/pages/website-features/. In the case of the Knysna Museum itself, the main themes of the displays were divided and described according to their locations on the museum properties (summarised and with links on www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/knysna-museum/). All other museums were allocated a single page each - see www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/other-museums/

Phases 2-4 involved the research and creation of themed pages with accompanying posters:

2: Our Forestry Heritage (Part I) - eight titles, including the forests, the woodcutters, the narrow-gauge railway line, etc.. See www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/parkes-shop/
3: Our Heritage in Stone - seven titles that explore the geology and archaeology of the Knysna basin. See www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/pitt-street-house/
4: Our Forestry Heritage (PART II) - three titles: Prehistoric people of the forests; Slavery and labour in the forests in the 19th Century; Labour in the forests under Apartheid. See www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/parkes-shop/

Posters

Since the budget for new displays was limited, the bulk of the available money went into researching and writing material for the web site. The displays themselves were therefore updated by the simple method of creating and hanging new posters on the walls of the museum.

The posters were all designed to include a main and three supplementary images, a maximum of 100 words of text - chosen to excite interest in the subject - and a QR (Quick Response) code. These codes can be scanned by smartphones, and direct users to pages on the site dedicated to the themes of each poster.

This allows people visiting the museum to access a deep level of information that isn’t possible in real-world displays where space and budget are limited. This expanded information includes both stories and multimedia (images, videos, pdf files, etc.)

The presence of this information on the web allows people who cannot visit the museums access to authoritative information about Knysna’s history and natural history.

The posters were printed A1 size on museum-quality canvas, and mounted on frames for display in the Knysna Museum.

Please see examples in the attached image gallery.

Pop-up museums

A full set of each series of posters was donated by Rotary Knysna to each of the local high schools and libraries, where they are now displayed as ‘pop-up museums’ - considerably adding to the reach of the project. See www.knysnamuseums.co.za/blog/post/pop-up-museums-for-local-schools-and-libraries/

Additionally, the artwork for these posters is available to local businesses (at the business’s own expense) should they wish to display them in order to enhance their guests’ experience of the town.

Example 1: a pop-up museum in 34 South Restaurant at the Knysna Waterfront (see gallery)
Example 2: a pop-up museum on display in the Knysna Public Library, Main Street (see gallery)
Example 3: a pop-up museum during the 2020 Knysna Timber Festival (see gallery - image & video)

Outdoor displays

As an extension of the digital-to-history interface, Knysna Municipality and Wesgro (which now - July 2021 - manages the tourism marketing function for the town) recently sponsored a new interpretive sign board for the wreck of the sailing ship, Paquita (1903), which lies in the river mouth.

This board, which has been erected near The Heads parking area, employs the same concept of a detailed web page accessed via QR codes. See attached image, and also the article, 'New interpretive sign for the wreck of the Paquita.'

'The Paquita: from deliberate wreck to diver’s paradise' on knysnamuseums.co.za: www.knysnamuseums.co.za/pages/paquita-wreck-knysna/

Project contractors

Martin Hatchuel, www.tourismcontent.co.za - built the Knysna Museums website on the Springnest content management platform. Researched and wrote all pages. Curated all media. Conceived the ideas for the posters and pop-up museums. Wrote the copy for all posters and for the Paquita signboard.
Jo Hugo, www.designetc.co.za - graphic design for all QR code/museum posters, and for the Paquita sign.
Destination Garden Route, www.destinationgardenroute.co.za - project management.
Knysna Press, www.knysnapress.co.za/ - printing and signage.

More information & enquiries for similar projects

Martin Hatchuel, martinhatchuel@gmail.com - 0849510574

7 July, 2021

Featured image

Xola Frans (Knysna Municipality); Latoya Baba (Percy Mdala High Interact Club); Philip Caveney (Knysna Historical Society); Megan Hunter (Knysna High Interact Club); Herb Hunter (Knysna Rotary); Brandmore Sandile Mngcitha (Percy Mdala High Interact Club) at the handover of the first pop-up museums to high schools in Knysna.

See article: Rotary sponsors pop-up museums for local schools and libraries

Talula: the Vivacity 20 that stars in ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords’

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0200

The lovely little Talula that stars in the children’s novel, ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords’ is known as a Vivacity 20. These four-berthed yachts were built under license in South Africa by E.I. Marine in Deneysville, on the Free State shores of the Vaal Dam. (See ‘Russel Marine and the Vivacity 20’ below)

Talula was delivered to her first owner in 1971.

By design, the Vivacity 20 is rigged as a masthead sloop - that is, a yacht with a single mast supported by stays (cables) that run from the masthead (top of the mast) to the front and back of the vessel, and with two sails: a larger headsail in front of the mast, and a slightly smaller mainsail behind it.

With two stubby keels, a total length of 6.1 metres (20 foot - hence the name), a beam of 2.13 metres, displacement of 816 kg, and a draft of only 71 cm, this is the ideal yacht for the (often) shallow waters of the Knysna Lagoon.

Plus: it’s a very forgiving little vessel that’s ideally suited to a family with almost no sailing experience - as Talula's was when the author bought her sight-unseen from a friend of a friend in Durban, and had her delivered by road to Knysna early in 2013 (see video).

The Talula story: It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords

‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords’ is a novel about a boy, his dogs, and his ghostly friend who set out to find the ghost’s lost grandfather, who hasn’t been seen for 150 years.

The ghost is fascinated by the sleek and modern (by his standards) lines of the little yacht, and convinces the boy that Talula is the proper pirate ship they need for their adventure.

Along the way, our heroes meet up with the ghosts of a number of actual ships that went down in and around the Knysna Heads, and end up battling the most famous ghost ship of all: the Flying Dutchman.

But her cruel and ghoulish master, Hendrick van der Decken, doesn’t like dogs...

Editor and book designer

‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords' is edited by Mike Kantey of Watercourse, Plettenberg Bay, with cover design and book design by Christian Jaggers of OneDesign, Cape Town.

Buy 'It's a pity I didn't bring any swords'

BUY 'IT'S A PITY I DIDN'T BRING ANY SWORDS'

Russel Marine and the evolution of the Vivacity 20

First built in England in 1963, the Vivacity 20 was designed by Peter Stevenson and Des Pollard - Pollard being the founder of Russel Marine Ltd. (UK), which opened its doors in 1959.

The Vivacity 20’s hull design was based on the (very similar) Alacrity 19, which had been built by another yard - Hurley Marine - before Pollard took over production in 1960.

Russel Marine built their Alacritys (Alacrities?) from moulded plywood in the first year, but switched over to GRP (fibreglass) after that, and it seems the Vivacity 20 was only ever sold in fibreglass.

The Vivacity 20 - actually an extended version of the Alacrity 19 - became a successful and very popular class of small sailing yacht in many parts of the world.

Besides the craft that Russel Marine supplied to the British market, the company also exported at least 600 Vivacitys and Alacritys to the USA, and licensed various other yards to build them, too - including Catalina Yachts in the USA, and E.I. Marine here in South Africa.

As an aside: apparently Catalina Yachts built some of Russel Marine’s products under license in Europe, where they marketed them as Jaguars (models 22, 25, 27, and 30) - an idea the Jaguar motor car company didn’t like.

Seems Jag took Catalina to court for unauthorised use of its name. And lost...

A number of versions of the Vivacity 20 were built: you could order them with one or two keels (twin keels or fin keels), and the class was so successful that Russel Marine began producing a 21 ft (6.5m) version (the Vivacity 21/650) in 1963, while the largest of them all - the Vivacity 24 - was launched in ‘73 or ‘74.

According to SailBoatData.com, “Russel Marine built its last boat in 1980.”

Vivacity20 Alacrity19 on Facebook

Meet a worldwide community of people who love these versatile little yachts on Facebook: Vivacity20 Alacrity19

Vivacity 20: specifications

See 'Vivacity 20' on SailboatData.com

Video: Talula arrives in Knysna

How did the wreck of the Fredheim get into the novel, ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords?’

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Today (23 June) marks the anniversary of the wreck of the Norwegian barque, Fredheim, in the Knysna Heads in 1897.

The Fredheim, of course, is one of the more notorious ships in Martin Hatchuel’s ghoulishly lekker Garden Route adventure, ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords.’ But what qualified her for such a dubious role?

Wreck of the Fredheim

The 440-ton Fredheim was typical of the cargo carriers of her time: a workmanlike barque with huge holds for the enormous consignment of creosote she had on board when she sailed for Knysna from Hull in the UK. (According to Wikipedia, a barque is “a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen rigged fore and aft.’)

The creosote - packed in barrels, of course - was destined for the sleeper factory here in Knysna, and (if we can believe the ghost pirate boy who stars in ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords’), “the whole town smelled of the stuff in those days.”

After what appears to have been a pretty uneventful voyage, the Fredheim’s master, Captain Anderson, tried to enter the Knysna Heads against the orders of the harbourmaster and pilot, John Benn.

Although Anderson would later say that he thought the pilot had signalled “in his favour,” Benn had actually lifted no less than three warnings on his flag pole high on the Eastern Head: “(1) stand out to sea as low tide’, (2) ‘standing in to danger’, and (3) (in desperation) ‘Danger!’ with a big red flag.” (Quoted from ‘Knysna The Forgotten Port,’ by Margaret Parkes and V.M. Willams.)

Unfortunately, the low tide, rough water, and westerly wind won out, and the Fredheim was forced eastwards almost instantly onto the rocks (the navigable channel in The Heads lies closest to the Western Head).

“In the short time of twenty minutes, destruction of the wooden ship was so complete that there was no actual ship left, only spars with men clinging to them. Six men were washed in on a piece of the stern of the vessel which luckily drifted close enough to the rocks to allow willing hands to throw several ropes out to the men and pull them in to safety.” (Knysna The Forgotten Port)

Of course, the wreck dashed most of the creosote barrels against the rocks, too, and the water was instantly stained with the stuff - which made rescuing the crew additionally difficult.

Nevertheless, John Benn and his team of oarsmen rowed out in their 20 ft. boat, and managed to save three of the survivors - while a land-bound rescue party, led by Magistrate Jackson, helped all but one of the others ashore.

“One elderly sailor, Matti Skippani the sailmaker, was drowned with his boots on. ...his body was washed up a little more than a week later. He was laid to rest in the Knysna churchyard.” (Knysna the Forgotten Port.)

Creosote spill

Given her size, the Fredheim probably had more than 2,000 barrels of creosote on board when she arrived in Knysna - but in the end, John Benn and his crew managed to salvage only about 90 of them, tying them together and floating them upstream to the government wharf on Thesen Island (and receiving £1 each for them!).

The oil slick spread from The Heads north, east and west, and is said to have affected the fishing in the area for as much as eighteen months. In ‘Knysna The Forgotten Port,’ the sawmiller, George Parkes Jnr., is quoted as having written that “Knysna was without fish, as the creosote had killed all the fish and shellfish, which were being washed up In great numbers on the beaches.”

The novel, It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords

Like the wrecks of the Seier, the Ville Pierre, and the Paquita - all of which went down in or near the Knysna Heads between 1882 and 1903 - the Fredheim plays a vital role in Martin Hatchuel’s novel, ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords.’

How vital a role? Well - for that you’ll have to read the book. But you should know this: they aren’t the only ships that haunt its pages.

The most famous ghost ship of all - the Flying Dutchman - makes her appearance, too. As does her captain, Hendrick van der Decken.

And he’s not a nice fellow, at all.

Editor and book designer

‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords' is edited by Mike Kantey of Watercourse, Plettenberg Bay, with cover design and book design by Christian Jaggers of OneDesign, Cape Town.

Buy 'It's a pity I didn't bring any swords'

BUY 'IT'S A PITY I DIDN'T BRING ANY SWORDS'

New interpretive sign for the wreck of the Paquita

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0200

In the old days - when tour guides were tour guides, and ghosts were scared - some of us (ahem!) would spin stories about the dangers of the Knysna Heads, and embellish them with wild claims about ‘the most dangerous portal to the sea,’ and ‘the only place in the world where you couldn’t get insurance for your craft.’

Not that we had any reference material for these porkers, of course - just that we subscribed to the idea that you should never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

And one of our favourite stories was the tale of the wreck of the Paquita, which lies tantalisingly close to the shore - on the edge of the shipping channel, just metres west of the White Beacon at the base of the Eastern Head.

Over the years, the steel hull of the wreck became a favourite spot for diving and snorkelling - and, since the story had been told so many times and in so many ways - members of the Scylla Diving Club decided, back in the late 80s or early 90s, to erect an interpretive sign that would set the record straight, provide information about visiting the wreck, and explain its legal status.

The sign - 1.1 metres high, 2.45 metres wide - was erected in the leafy walk-through that leads from the lower restaurant parking area to the White Beacon. And it served the Paquita well for almost 30 years.

New interpretive sign for the wreck of the Paquita

By this year, though (2021) the sign had become both tatty and outdated, and Visit Knysna and the local municipality decided to sponsor a new board - which they contracted Destination Garden Route to produce.

Destination Garden Route worked with Martin Hatchuel (tourismcontent.co.za), who researched and wrote new text for the board, Jo Hugo (design,etc.), who designed it, and Elle Redman (Elle Photo), who provided new photos to accompany the iconic and historic image of the Paquita as she looked lying on the rocks back in 1903 - after she was wrecked, but before she was finally sunk.

While the new sign provides an overview of the Paquita as she was and is, space on the board is of course limited - so the whole links via a QR code to a dedicated page on the town’s museums web site (knysnamuseums.co.za), where the story is told in full, accompanied by even more historic images.

Piet Otto's sketch of the wreck of the Paquita

Both the old and the new Paquita signboards carry diagrammes of the Paquita as she looks today. According to Mike Elliot - station commander of the NSRI's Station 12 Knysna at the time the original board was erected - this diagramme was drawn by Piet Otto (a member of the Scylla diving club), who "spent months diving the wreck using an aluminum swimming pool rod as a 'ruler' to ensure the dimensions were accurate."

The sailing ship Paquita: the full story

Now when you're visiting The Heads, you can scan the code with a smartphone, and it’ll direct you to the link you’re looking for: ‘The Paquita: from deliberate wreck to diver’s paradise - The story of Knysna’s most famous shipwreck.’

The value to Knysna goes beyond just telling a story in the field: thanks to the QR code and the web (the history to digital interface!), the authentic tale of the Paquita is now also available to the world.

Martin Hatchuel: Storytelling services

Want to tell your stories to the world - in print, on line, by video, or through innovative ideas like you’ve read about here? Contact Martin Hatchuel today.

'It's a pity I didn't bring any swords' and the wreck of the Seier

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0200

This is the story of the last days of the 491 ton sailing ship Seier, which met her end near Knysna on the 23rd of May, 1904.

Built in Risør in Norway in 1885, registered in Kopevik (also in Norway), and sailing for owners Severin Larsen under her master, Peder Larsen, the Seier was a three-masted barque (a vessel with square rig on the foremast and mainmast, and fore-and-aft rig on the mizzenmast). She was typical of the cargo carriers of her day, with a wide, spacious hull designed for bulk loading.

On her final voyage, she sailed from Goole, in England, carrying, amongst other things, hundreds of barrels of creosote for delivery to the railway sleeper factory in Knysna (where the sleepers were made from yellowwood harvested from the local, indigenous evergreen forests - a disaster of its own that played out over a period of almost two hundred years!)

Wreck of the Seier

The story goes that captain Larsen ‘mistook’ the Goukamma River mouth for the mouth of the Knysna Lagoon (where the harbour was situated) - but this is difficult to believe, since the Goukamma River makes its wide, shallow, lazy way into the sea across the beach west of Buffalo Bay, while the Knysna Heads are two enormous sandstone cliffs that stand like towers over the narrow, shallow, dangerous channel that separates the Knysna Estuary from the Indian Ocean.

And, since the Knysna Heads was the official (only!) entry to the harbour, they were guarded, too, by the harbourmaster and pilot, John Benn II, who would have raised a signal that would have indicated whether or not it was safe to enter.

But, this being the time when many ageing sailing vessels were being scrapped in favour of more profitable, faster, and bigger steamships, let’s not cast any aspersions on the reason for the accident...

Anyway, and to cut a long story short, Larsen is said to have realised that he was on a course for a beaching (which wouldn’t have done much good if he was indeed trying to wreck his command) - so he turned around at the last moment.

Which worked, because he sailed smack-bang onto a submerged rock that lay west of Walker Point, and about three miles offshore.

The Seier began taking on water immediately, and Larsen steered her for The Point at Buffalo Bay, where she came to rest on the rocks, and from where the entire crew were rescued by local fishermen who had witnessed the event.

Creosote spill

The ship broke up quickly, and she was disposed of just as quickly: at the instruction of her owners, she was sold at auction only five days later, fetching a total of just £16 .

In the interim, her cargo had escaped from the holds, and many of the barrels of creosote had broken up in the surf - and spilled their oily, smelly mess onto the beach and the shore.

Many of them were rescued, though - salvaged by the locals, and taken by sleighs and ox wagons to Brenton-on-Sea and over the Brenton Peninsula to Brenton-on-Lake, from where they were floated across the Knysna Lagoon to the sleeper factory on Thesen Island.

And the price the factory paid to those hardy adventurers who went to all this trouble?

Four shillings and sixpence.

A barrel.

What was left of the ship was either broken up by the waves, or carted off for use elsewhere - the masts, for example, were sawn into slabs, although all but one of them were lost in a fire at Brenton some months later. (The survivor was sold to the sawmillers, Thesen & Co., and dragged and floated to its destination in the same way as its erstwhile shipmates, those last surviving barrels).

It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords: Children’s novel

And this, of course, is the reason the Spirit of Seier - the ghost of the ss Seier that features in Martin Hatchuel’s ghoulishly lekker children’s novel, It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords - is always preceded by the stench of creosote whenever it appears to Leaf and his friend, Blueberry, the ghost of the sailor boy, on their quest to find Blueberry’s lost grandfather.

Of course, too, it doesn’t explain why the most famous ghost ship of all, the Flying Dutchman (the fully rigged Dutch fluijt under command of the evil pirate captain, Hendrick van der Decken), smells of rot and decay - but we’re pretty sure you can work THAT one out for yourself...

Editor and book designer

‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords' is edited by Mike Kantey of Watercourse, Plettenberg Bay, with cover design and book design by Christian Jaggers of OneDesign, Cape Town.

Image: Buffalo Bay, Knysna, South Africa by South African Tourism. Originally published on Flickr

Did the Flying Dutchman haunt Bartolomeu Dias?

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Everyone who lives on the Southern Tip of Africa knows the legend of the Flying Dutchman: when her captain, Hendrick van der Decken, encountered the world’s worst storm while trying to round the Cape of Good Hope back in the late 1400s, his crew begged him to turn back and wait for better days.

But the stubborn old man cursed his men and cursed the ocean and cursed the Devil who’d spawned the storm:

“You can all go to Hades!” he cried. “I’ll make it round this damned Cape even if it takes me till Doomsday!”

What he didn’t know, though, was that the Devil happened to be standing right next to him at the very moment he made this wretched promise - and, the Devil being the Devil - the words were no sooner out of the captain’s mouth than the curse became a solid reality.

The Caravel Bartolomeu Dias

In contrast to van der Decken, one captain who did indeed succeed in the task was the Portuguese navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, who led the first European expedition around the Cape, and who landed at Munroshoek, the little bay in front of the present-day Dias Museum Complex in Mossel Bay, on the 3rd of February, 1488.

This, as we know, was a seminal moment in the history of modern-day South Africa, which is why the Portuguese and South African governments financed the construction of a life-sized replica of Dias' ship - a caravel - in the late-80s, and sailed it into the same bay on the same date, five hundred years later: 3 February, 1988.

After a tour of the ports of South Africa, this latter day caravel - named, of course, the s.v. ‘Bartolomeu Dias’ - was hauled out of the water and dry-docked in a repurposed historical mill, whose redesign was the brainchild of the architect, Gawie Fagan, who also acted as master on the voyage from Lisbon to Mossel Bay.

Whether Fagan or his predecessor, Dias himself, ever met van der Decken isn’t recorded - which is intriguing, since it means that the caravel that now stands in the Maritime Museum of the Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex may still be hiding a number of mysterious secrets, even more than 535 years after that first, fateful day on the beach in Mossel Bay.

Martin Hatchuel’s novel, ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords’

For lovers of a good yarn - and, for their parents - some of these secrets may be revealed in Martin Hatchuel’s ghoulishly lekker local adventure, ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords’ - a full-length novel that tells the tale of a young, water-crazy kid who sets out with his friend the 500-year old ghost sailor boy to find the ghost’s lost grandpa, who was last seen haunting an abandoned ship on Noetzie beach (east of the Knysna Heads), a hundred and forty years ago.

Of course, being of a cautious nature, the ghost convinces the lad to bring his faithful dogs, Zion and Skye, along with them when they sail out The Heads on the spirit of the boy’s family’s yacht.

But given van der Decken’s feelings about dogs in general - was this actually a good idea?

Editor and book designer

‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords' is edited by Mike Kantey of Watercourse, Plettenberg Bay, with cover design and book design by Christian Jaggers of OneDesign, Cape Town.

Mike Kantey, editor of 'It's a pity I didn't bring any swords'

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0200

With a BA in languages from the University of Cape Town (English III, Xhosa III, Sotho I, the Lestrade Scholarship for African Languages), Mike Kantey, who’s had more than forty years experience in publishing, writing, and editing, founded Watercourse Media & Development in 1990.

Mike is a language practitioner, activist, editor, publishing consultant, project manager, author, musician, event manager….

And he’s done this stuff all his life.

As an activist, for example, he served during the 1990s as co-chair of Earthlife Africa, Cape Town, as the founder member of the South African New Economics Network, as an executive committee member of the Publishers Association of South Africa, and as a committee member of the Book Development Council South Africa (Western Cape).

More recently, he founded and still runs the annual Watercourse History Festival in Plettenberg Bay, while also concentrating on research, writing, editing and design for his own imprint, The Watermark Press - which has published Prof. Mike de Jongh’s ‘The Hessequa of the Southern Cape’ and 22 other titles (so far!).

Mike Kantey: Editor

Among the many books he’s edited, we find:

Ken Barris’s ‘The Jailer's Book' (Kagiso), which won the M-Net Book Prize;
Peter-Dirk Uys’ ‘No One's Died Laughing’ (Penguin), and ‘Apart Hate Apart Love’ (Random);
Stephen Gray’s ‘John Ross’ (Penguin); and
Alan Landau’s self-published ‘Langbourne’ series.

Publishing companies he’s worked with include:

Gariep Publishing Company (marketing and project management);
Hodder & Stoughton, Johannesburg (marketing and sales in the Western Cape);
Maskew Miller Longman, Cape Town (research);
World Bank Publications, Washington (research);
International Masters Publishers, London (research);
Kagiso Publishers (commissioning editor, English language and literature).

And his own written work includes:

The BIG Book of MADness (The Watermark Press, 2018);
Nukes? No Thanks! Five Arguments Against Nuclear Energy in South Africa (The Watermark Press, 2017);
Touching Circles, a family chronicle (Watermark Press, 2009);
Touching Hands, which follows after Touching Circles (Watermark Press, 2011);
“A Homage to Sophia” (Janus, a Journal of Philosophy, USA, 2005);
Some of us are leopards, some of us are lions - also published as Mens kry mos luiperds, mens kry mos leeus, and in nine other languages (Human & Rousseau) ‘Leopards’ won the Old Mutual Literary Award and received an Honourable Mention at the Bologna Book Fair;
All Tickets/Alle Kaartjies (Taurus);
The Terribly Vain Squirrel (Buchu Books);
Harriet and the Sunrise Toffees (Kagiso);
True to the Whole (Firfield Pamphlet Press);
“Publishing in South Africa” in Africa Bibliography 1987, Manchester and a South African entry (with David Philip) in the Garland Encyclopaedia of Publishing;
Numerous articles in various publications (he was a columnist for Vryeweekblad and South in the 1990s, and still writes for CXPress and Plettenberg Bay Tourism)

You’d think editing ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords’ would be a bit of a breeze...

Contact Mike Kantey

Facebook: Watercourse

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Christian Jaggers, book designer for ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords’

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Christian Jaggers has more than twenty years experience in design, marketing, production, photography, finished art, reproduction, DTP (desktop publishing), sales, and advertising.

There’s very little he doesn’t know about the industry - which makes him the perfect person to design the cover art and the page layout for ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords.’

He’s worked as the art director at Struik Christian Books and the Hoberman Collection, to name just two. He spearheaded the Hollard Publishing Group’s changeover to InDesign, he was involved in formalising the straight-to-plate standards (PDF) in the publishing field in Cape Town, and he was one of the first people in South Africa to send a book straight from computer to plate.

Christian also has extensive experience in book launches and product launches and in advertorial publishing projects for books about the V&A Waterfront, the safari lodges of South Africa, and the winelands of South Africa, amongst others.

Having worked for top clients in many aspects of business, and having worked with two design business startups (both of which are still running successfully) and a few other sideline enterprises, too, he’s the kind of person who simply makes stuff happen.

Working always with great gusto and enthusiasm through his agency, OneDesign, Christian Jaggers literally is the Power of One.

Christian Jaggers, book designer - contact

OneDesign ... The Power of One on Facebook: Onedesign

Buy 'It's a pity I didn't bring any swords'

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Will the Paquita sail again? Yes - in this ghoulishly lekker Knysna adventure story

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0200

The Paquita was a 460-ton barque (three-masted sailing vessel) that was built in England in 1862, and that was wrecked near the beacon on Knysna’s Eastern Head - probably deliberately - on the 18th of October, 1903.

But then it sailed again just recently - in Martin Hatchuel’s ghoulishly lekker local adventure, ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords.’

So what’s the story?

Wreck of the Paquita

The Paquita - in Spanish, ‘Paquita,’ is the familiar form of the name, Francisca, and ironically means, ‘free’ - had already had a long career as a cargo ship when it left England for Knysna in April 1903, carrying a load of coal destined for the sawmillers, Thesen & Co.

As a sailing ship, the Paquita was one of the last of its kind.

A steel-hulled vessel with no engines (steam or otherwise), it was configured in the classic style of a 3-masted barque. Its mainmast (tallest mast) and foremast were square rigged (with square sails that hung from wooden yardarms), and its mizzenmast (rear mast) was fore-and-aft rigged - that is, it had a pair of sails that followed the centre-line of the ship, and that, seen together, formed an almost triangular-shape.

On that final voyage, the Paquita arrived off Knysna in July 1903, but, finding the conditions at The Heads unfavourable, sailed off and anchored in Plettenberg Bay to wait for better days.

On the 19th of August, the ship finally entered the Knysna Lagoon, and tied up at Thesen’s Wharf, where its cargo was offloaded. It was then moved to a spot on the Brenton shore known as ‘The Sandpit,’ where its holds were loaded with sand as ballast in preparation for its onward journey.

From then on, things seemed to become a little dodgy. On the 3rd of October - apparently because the anchor had failed as a result of strong winds - the ship ran aground on Leisure Isle (then known as Steenbok Island) on the eastern side of the lagoon.

In order to float it again, the crew threw the ballast overboard - but another gale blew up on the 18th of October, and the anchor cables “failed" again (“parted” in the parlance), apparently causing the ship to drift up against Fountain Point on the Eastern Head, where it was was holed by the rocks and began to sink.

Salvaging the Paquita

Couple of strange points: although the Paquita was supposed to have been preparing for a long onward journey, most of the crew had been paid off or had deserted while they were here in Knysna, and only four were left - which wasn’t nearly enough for a ship that would have needed at least ten pairs of hands.

And secondly: when a diver went down to place explosives against the hull to finally sink the hulk - he found all the cables intact, and, in fact, reported that the anchor had been deliberately placed to hold the ship against the rocks.

So no, the insurance didn’t pay out…

The wreck was sold at auction, although the buyers weren’t able to save much of it. Apparently the man who bought the hull - he paid £30 for it - couldn’t even salvage the steel, and only managed to get the ship’s ropes off the wreck. But Donald Benn (assistant pilot from 1888 to 1912) did get hold of the topmast, which he repurposed as a flag pole - but not the flagpole that features in ‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords.’

For the rest, the remains of the old tub sank gradually - over a period of 18 months - to the bottom, until the Paquita became only a shadow visible from the land. And, now that it’s covered in colourful corals and such, an attractive spot for scuba diving and snorkelling.

It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords

But how does the Paquita feature in the story of a boy and his friend the ghost who sail off into the night to search for the ghost’s lost grandpa, who’d last been seen haunting a shipwreck on Noetzie Beach, east of the Knysna Heads, 140 years ago?

Well, that’s a complicated question to answer in a short article like this one - but all will be revealed when you read the book!

Editor and book designer

‘It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords' is edited by Mike Kantey of Watercourse, Plettenberg Bay, with cover design and book design by Christian Jaggers of OneDesign, Cape Town.

A shipwreck that made a Knysna adventure

Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Knysna’s maritime history stems (awful pun!) from the presence of the enormous indigenous forests of the Garden Route that were so attractive to the earliest settlers.

Cape Town needed timber, and Knysna had it - but the roads between the two in the early 1800s! - pretty impassable, really.

Also, there aren’t many natural harbours along the Southern Cape coast, although the Knysna Lagoon is the exception.

Problem with the Lagoon, though, is The Heads: the narrow (300 metre wide) entrance to the sea forms a treacherous portal indeed - especially when you consider that the navigable channel is less than 90 metres wide, and that it lies on the Western side of the mouth - which seems counter-intuitive when you look at it as you approach from the seaward side.

And this is why the first ship that attempted to cross the bar (sailor-speak for coming in through The Heads) hit a rock on the eastern side, and sank onto the sandbank just inside the river mouth. This was back in 1817, you understand: no GPS or depth sounders in those days...

Undeterred, the colony’s naval commissioner, Jahleel Brenton - who wanted to access that timber, and who also wanted to encourage families to settle in Knysna “to make experiments in the cultivation of hemp” - sent a second ship to salvage the remains of the first. This was the HMS Podargus, which sailed safely through the narrows, blazing a path for Captain Robert Wauchope (who surveyed the lagoon on HMS Eurydice), and for the arrival of the first pilot at The Heads, John Gough (who took up his post in 1818, and was fired for dereliction of duty only 18 months later).

John Benn and The Phoenix

From then on the port of Knysna progressed in fits and starts - but always exporting timber to the wood-hungry cities of the Cape Colony.

Many men (it was always men) held the post of pilot and harbourmaster in the years until the harbour was finally closed in 1954 - but none more famously than John Benn II, who ruled the roost from 1877 to 1912.

One of Benn’s most remarkable moments on the job happened in April, 1881, when he and his men found an abandoned three-masted schooner at the mouth of the Noetzie River (east of The Heads), its masts and rigging bleached white from the sun.

With no valuables or signs of life on board, it had clearly been adrift for a long, long time.

Benn identified it as the Phoenix - which had previously been registered as the Ville Pierre, out of Point Pierre on the Island of Réunion.

The search party did find two written records on board: a scrap of paper dated 1880, and the ship’s cargo log, which showed that it had carried a load of guano back in 1876.

With no further clues available, the mystery of the wreck remained unsolved.

And the Phoenix? Well, she was attached by the government's customs officer, and auctioned off for £15.

It's a pity I didn't bring any swords

So how does such a mystery fit into Martin Hatchuel’s ghoulishly lekker local children’s adventure, It’s a pity I didn’t bring any swords?

Well - because a ghost appeared on board on the day of John Benn’s inspection. And if you want to know how THAT fits into the picture, you’ll have to read the book.

Cover art & book design: Christian Jaggers, OneDesign - Facebook: OneDesign
Book editor: Mike Kantey, The Watercourse Press - Facebook: Watercourse

Putting the real Knysna Oyster on its rightful plate

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Knysna and oysters: they go together like the proverbial horse and carriage. You couldn’t imagine the town’s most famous annual party (the Knysna Oyster Festival) without them, and you couldn’t imagine a holiday by the Lagoon without at least a plate-full of them. And yet nobody farms them in Knysna any more.

So why do the locals still insist on calling their town ‘The Oyster Capital of South Africa’ - or even ‘of the World?’

According to Charles van Tonder - whose restaurants, 34 South, Tapas & Oysters Knysna, Sirocco, and The Project Bar, have all built their reputations on the luscious bivalves - we’ve been thinking about the wrong oyster all along.

“Sure, the cultivated Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) that they used to farm here in Knysna are really tasty,” he said. “But they were never ‘from Knysna’ because they came originally from the Sea of Japan - and they can’t match our indigenous common rock oysters (Crassostrea margaritacea) when it comes to texture and taste.

“It’s a bit like comparing Karoo lamb with venison. They do the same job, and both of them do it very well - but to the connoisseur, the venison is a much rarer culinary treat.”

A season past: putting Knysna's oyster farming history behind us

Charles insists that it’s time for Knysna to put its history as a commercial oyster farming venue where it belongs: in the past.

“This was never a good spot for growing oysters commercially because of the prevailing conditions in the estuary: there aren’t enough nutrients in the water for them to grow to harvestable size quickly enough - as they do on the West Coast - and regular, seasonal flooding that brings fatal fresh water and silt into the Lagoon usually resulted in massive die-offs,” he said. (The floods of ’96, for example - which derailed trains and tipped whole houses into rivers - killed off more than 90% of the cultivated oysters in the Estuary.)

“The truth of the matter is that the oyster farms were set up in terms of the ideology of the time - which makes them a regrettable part of our history.

“And besides, why would you want to try cultivating one kind of oyster in an area where another kind grows naturally anyway?

“So let’s move on, forget that cultivated oysters have anything to do with Knysna - and concentrate on allowing the real treasure, our uncommonly gorgeous common rock oyster, to come into its own.”

Ancient epicures: how oysters made us modern

Oysters have been an integral part of the local diet for millennia, and they’re considered to have played a vital role in the development of modern human behaviour. The common rock oyster appears prominently in the middens in Mossel Bay’s Pinnacle Point Caves (about 120 km west of Knysna), which have revealed the earliest evidence for modern human behaviour - and which were inhabited at different times over a total of 120,000 years beginning about 162,000 years ago.

According to Curtis Marean (an associate director of the Institute of Human Origins and professor at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, and the leader of the international team that’s been studying the archaeology at Pinnacle Point since 1999): “The expansion of the diet to marine foods [around 162,000 years ago] must have had major, cascading impacts on human diet, nutrition, technology, and mobility. Omega-3 fatty acids are critical to healthy brain growth and placental development, and while marine foods are not the only source... they are the best source and their addition to the diet can have substantial fitness benefits...”

How long is a string of oysters?

These days, coastal oysters are harvested commercially by a regulated number of permit holders whose bag limits are (in theory at least) strictly controlled - although no one really knows what those bag limits mean. This is significant because, unlike our ancient ancestors - who would have migrated up and down the coast as natural resources waxed and waned - we modern humans need to understand the sizes of any natural resources we want to exploit if we want to ensure their sustainability.

“As wonderful as the common rock oyster is, as apparently plentiful - most of them grow below the intertidal zone, where harvesting is not allowed,” said marine biologist Toni Tonin, an oyster farmer with twenty-five years experience, and a founder and the managing director of the Saldanha Bay Oyster Company, which farms Pacific Oysters in the place in South Africa where they grow best - in the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the West Coast.

The consequence of not knowing the size of the resource, he said, “Is that we haven’t got a clue as to what sustainable harvesting actually means.”

Both Toni and Charles argue that such a survey should be the province of Marine and Coastal Management - the national department responsible for conservation of the country’s marine resources - but, they say, they haven’t yet been able to convince the officials of the need for it.

“It wouldn’t have to be outrageously expensive,” said Toni.

“Using a combination of physical surveys and GIS-based technology, it should be possible to estimate the number of oysters, their ages, and the frequency with which they occur along the Southern Cape Coast (from Agulhas to the Bloukrans River mouth) for less than a million rand.”

Real Knysna oysters: modern royalty

Still - and given that the people at Marine and Coastal Management are doing what they can with what they have - coastal oysters are available for sale to the public: in South Africa we harvest 500,000 of them a year, against a total of 4.5 million cultivated oysters.

“The relationship is thus mutually beneficial: the cultivated oysters satisfy the bulk of the demand, and this reduces the pressure on the coastals,” said Charles.

Collected individually and by hand, often transported over great distances on the backs of the harvesters themselves, deeply satisfying in taste and texture, coastal oysters are, said Charles, “Actually quite rare - which is one of the two main reasons whey they’re more costly than the cultivated variety.”

And the other one? “As far as I’m concerned, it’s because the Knysna oyster is quite simply the finest in the world.”

Author

'Putting the real Knysna Oyster on its rightful plate' was written for 34 South by Martin Hatchuel.

Want something similar about something you feel strongly about? Contact me: www.tourismcontent.co.za

Windsor House: Making accommodation magic in Tokai

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0200

It’s probably not even necessary to say it, but the one thing you need for success in the hospitality business is a deep and genuine love for people. And for the environment.

And yet, surprising as it may seem, when you think back on all the bad experiences you’ve had in guest houses and hotels throughout your travelling life, there are many who don’t…

Tracey and Mark Gordon, though, sit high in the forefront of that first group. Quite possibly, right at the top. (Forgive me if I’m gushing, but if you stick with me, I’ll explain.)

The Gordons run the small and luxurious Windsor House in Tokai, in Cape Town’s Constantia Valley - which, according to constantiavalley.com, is “the oldest wine producing region in the southern hemisphere.”

The Gordons and the Valley make a powerful combination. And here’s why:

It’s not about sales

Although they’re fully committed to their guesthouse, both Tracey and Mark have other business - in communications and branding - which they run from home (which means they’re always available for their guests).

“Our passion for people comes from our experience as communicators,” said Tracey.

Rather than selling anything - their accommodation, meals in or out, local experiences - “we see it as a natural progression to build relationships of trust, because it’s not just about the 12 or 24 hours while you’re here with us.

“And it’s not so much about the sales, either - it’s more: ‘What can I do to make your life better?’

“If you can achieve that, your guests will remember you - and your house won’t be just another place on their itineraries.”

On top of their business experience, both of the Gordons have - and still do - enjoy playing sport, which, Mark said, “teaches you a lot about interacting and socialising with people.”

Visit Tokai and the Constantia Valley

Interacting and socialising with people are the very talents the Gordons employ to help every guest “live life like a local” - if they want to, of course: Tracey and Mark know far better than to pressure anyone.

Asked which attractions they like most to recommend in their area, they said the highlights of Tokai itself include golf, food, wine, and the local open spaces with their leisure trails and MTB trails - while a little further afield, Kirstenbosch National Botanic Gardens, the quaint fishing harbour and shops in Kalk Bay, and the Boulders Penguin Colony in Simonstown and Cape Point itself (both part of the Table Mountain National Park) get special mentions.

“And the local markets, too,” said Tracey. “Tokai’s Earth Fair Farmers Market on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings for eating and shopping, and The Range on a Friday night, with its fabulous food and live music - our guests love them, and going to them and being part of the local community helps make their stay with us an immersive experience.”

Windsor House: boutique guest house accommodation and facilities

Windsor House has three en-suite B&B rooms (one of which - the enormous Constantiaberg Suite with its spacious, loft-style, first-floor lounge area - is equipped for self-catering), while the whole establishment is also available as a four-bedroom villa for bookings of fourteen days or more, in which case the Gordons vacate the master suite, and the guests have the place to themselves.

Facilities in the rooms are modern and luxurious without being extravagant, and range from a selection of two types of bath towel (terry towels or Turkish - see below), to very welcome, healthy and refreshing, charcoal-filtered water in Japanese Kurabo glass containers. (None of that single-use plastic bottled stuff here!)

Public areas include intimate courtyards, and a sunny, leafy garden with an enormous swimming pool and covered braai area. (Rates include breakfast, but dinner and braais - BBQs - are available on site by arrangement.)

Summah Turkish towels: it’s about the environment

Tracey explained that everything the family does is “about care and doing our bit to serve the planet,” and that being in contact with overseas guests “gives us plenty of opportunity to learn more about how we can achieve this.”

She said, for example, that foreign visitors “seem to be so much more respectful of the environment, so far advanced. When Cape Town had strict water restrictions, they never complained, and they never bucked the system. They just understood.”

This concern for sustainability explains those Turkish towels in the bedrooms.

“Our daughter, Kirsten, runs Summah - summah.co - out of Istanbul, in Turkey, where she produces a range of towels, gowns, blankets, and gifts together with local suppliers chosen for their sustainable process, and for their efficiency at minimising their impact on the environment,” said Mark. (With a work space lined with Summah stock, he supplies both the public and hospitality business in South Africa with Summah products - and can, of course, arrange embroidered branding if required.)

Windsor House: spot on

Tracey and Mark Gordon’s holistic approach to hospitality - ‘What can I do to make your life better?’ - strikes me as encapsulating the very essence of the sector, especially since the ‘your’ in the question encompasses their guests as much as it includes the environment (neighbourhood, planet) in which we all have to live.

In fact, I think in more than 30 years experience of the business of hospitality, accommodation, and tourist attractions - including 20 years investigating and writing about tourism and destination management - I’ve never heard it better put.

‘What can I do to make your life better?’ is exactly what we should all be aiming for if we want this increasingly fragile sector to succeed.

Windsor House

9 Windsor Lane, Dennendal, Tokai, Cape Town

Review by Martin Hatchuel

‘With a hundred men we can move a mountain:’ How an Airbnb host’s love of her job made movie magic. And changed lives

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

What gets you going?

From the moment Alison von During set up her Airbnb in the studio apartment and private, leafy patio of her newly-acquired house in Vredehoek, on the slopes of Table Mountain, this was the question that drove her:

What gets you going?

Because, being Alison, she wasn’t simply going to offer her guests a place to stay: she was going to offer them the entire city of Cape Town.

Whatever interested them, she would find for them.

The result has benefitted her, of course - her family, too - but not nearly as much as it’s benefited her city.

“I’m a networker,” she said. “I always spend time with my guests to understand the purpose of their visit in order to enhance their stay with every resource I have.”

This has led to a 4.93 star rating on Airbnb (139 reviews as at 19 November, 2020), superhost status, and a role as a community leader on the world’s largest home-sharing platform.

But it’s also led directly to the production of a feature-length documentary that’s poised to make its debut on the international film circuit, and also to make a real difference to an inspiring social enterprise in one of Cape Town’s oldest and most deserving suburbs.

Talk to your guests

Alison considers herself very fortunate to have hosted some wonderful guests during the pandemic: first a couple who stayed for ten weeks during the hard lockdown (she still maintains weekly contact with them: “We bonded like family over an extraordinary time in history”), and then a talented young Ghanaian who now lives in the USA.

Cinematographer Déwun Owusu - founder of the Dallas-based ICLASS Media Group (with clients ranging from higher education institutions to NGOs and global brands, and products that range from branded films to music videos) - was shooting a documentary in Cape Town when he found himself trapped by the international travel ban.

With his doccie on hold, Déwun booked into Little Liberty, and set about finding ways to generate local projects.

And Alison being Alison, she quickly discovered that his “true heart lay in social impact work” - so she took him to meet the social enterprise innovator, Tony Elvin.

Well-known for his work with Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Foundation (a social enterprise that concentrates on the transfer of cheffing skills) Tony Elvin is the Jamaican-British founder of the NPC, iKhaya le Langa, in Cape Town’s Langa Quarter.

According to his LinkedIn profile, “Using PPP principles and sustainable business tourism, the vision behind this hugely ambitious undertaking (the Langa Quarter) is to regenerate what is the ‘oldest black township in the whitest city in Africa’ - creating the first multiracial social destination in a black suburb.”

Situated in a disused school, iKhaya le Langa is the Quarter’s tourism hub and sustainable tourism development project.

But, of course, there wasn’t any tourism happening during lockdown, so Tony initiated the Lockdown Lunch Club, which led a group of young, socially displaced youth to begin feeding their families - cooking for them at iKhaya Le Langa, and delivering their meals to their doors.

It was a success from the start: instead of being forced to hustle on the streets for food while risking military arrest, the young men became volunteers with a mission.

And that was the point at which Alison introduced Déwun to Tony.

Lockdown Lunch Club: the documentary

Déwun was hooked immediately.

“He assembled a local, aspirant film crew, and we spent four days filming,” said Alison.

The result was a 4-minute fundraising video for iKhaya Le Langa - which you can watch on YouTube (you’ll come away feeling SO inspired) - as well as a a documentary tour of the iKhaya le Langa Social Enterprise Precinct, three short clips for use on social media, and a 23-minute, made-for-TV documentary that has now been selected for screenings at the International Arts Film Festival in London, the Capital City Black Film Festival in Austin, Texas, the Miami Independent Film Festival, and the Docs Without Borders Film Festival in Delaware.

In his voiceover on the fundraising video, Tony Elvin says, “The Lockdown Lunch Club is part of a bigger piece. This organisation is attempting to unlock the potential of this amazing community.”

One challenge, he says, is the position of socially-excluded males.

“All the other NGOs were taking care of the old people, of the disabled people, the child-headed households… But this group of men... I think if you don’t find ways of bringing them into the tent, they will burn the tent down.”

The idea, he said, is to transition from the Lockdown Lunch Club to the more permanent 100 Club, “to keep the fifty or so people that we’re feeding, and grow that process because I think, with a hundred men, we can move a mountain.”

There’s no doubt that this powerful nascent movement will receive a massive boost from Déwun Owusu’s documentary - in fact it already has: just watch how excited the youngsters are in the videos they’ve made about the film’s acceptance onto the festival programmes on their Facebook Page (iKhaya Le Langa). https://www.facebook.com/IKhayaLeLanga

But Alison says this is just the start.

“A number of beneficiaries of the Global Education Movement, which offers degree courses to refugees and immigrants from five African countries, have already been offered internships at iKhaya le Lange, and an opportunity has arisen for the youth of LAPD (the Langa-Athlone-Pinelands District) to feature on TedXYouth - all thanks to Déwun’s dedication and enthusiasm,” she said.

But let’s never forget that it began when Alison von During took the time to ask her Airbnb guest what fired him up.

“I love and invest in every guest, no matter if they are here to achieve their bucket list or here on a specific mission,” she said.

“I see it as my devout responsibility to provide my guests with their best possible take-home experience.”

And that, of course, is the power of tourism.

Contact Alison von During at Little Liberty: +27(0)83 6771190

Visit iKhaya le Langa online

Gareth Patterson’s Beyond the Secret Elephants

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Gareth Patterson wanted to solve one of Knysna’s most common mysteries in his 2009 book, ‘The Secret Elephants - The Rediscovery of the World's Most Southerly Elephants.’

How many of them were there in the Knysna Forests?

The official party line was: just one - an old matriarch, wandering lonely and forlorn in the leafy, lemony light of the evergreen jungle that surrounds the town. (It’s a line that hasn’t changed; If anything, local pundits have become ever more strident in their insistence that that’s that.)

But Gareth knew otherwise. He’d spent seven self-funded years looking for them - walking quietly in the forest and its neighbouring fynbos for hours almost every day, covering thousands and thousands of kilometres - and although he’d enjoyed only a few, brief encounters with them, he had managed to collect several hundred DNA samples from them: he extracted this DNA from their dung - which he also measured for size in order to estimate the ages of the depositors.

He had these samples analysed by conservation geneticist Prof. Lori Eggert, the Director of Graduate Studies in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri, who had developed a method of genetic censusing specifically for the study of African and Asian elephant populations.

The Knysna forests, she found, contained at least five individual females - and field observations by Gareth and others (spoor, actual encounters, etc.) indicated the presence of at least two males, too.

Beyond the Secret Elephants

The Secret Elephants was a cracker of a read, and I still can’t see how anyone could argue with its conclusions. So I plunged right in when ‘Beyond the Secret Elephants’ landed on my desk last week - hoping (because, as usual, I’d been in too much of a hurry to read the advance notices) that it would reveal even more conclusive evidence of our favourite forest phantoms, and (more hopes), that it would tell us that we had even more of them living in our back yard.

Instead, I learned (not enough!) about an even more intriguing mystery: Otang.

Otang is the local name for a relict hominoid - a kind of human relative like the Yeti in the Himalayas or Bigfoot in North America - living in the Knysna forests.

Now don’t stop reading this review just because you don’t believe in the existence of relic hominoids - and if you need motivation to carry on, remember this: “The greatest scientific discovery was the discovery of ignorance. Once humans realised how little they knew about the world, they suddenly had a very good reason to seek new knowledge, which opened up the scientific road to progress.” (Yuval Noah Harari - ‘Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow’)

We don’t want to be ignorant.

Gareth and the people he cites in his book have seen Otangs - usually, but not always, quite briefly - and one of the things that intrigued me is that every one of them has exhibited one, common set of reactions to the experience: shock, followed by a deep reluctance to tell anyone about it.

“Because I thought you wouldn’t believe me.” (Which could just as well have been the title of the book.)

This is a terrible indictment on society. Are we that narrow-minded that we can’t open ourselves up to possibilities as great as the fact that we might be living next door to a distant (or not so distant) relative?

You have to ask how far we’ve come from the time when the Roman Catholic Inquisition put Galileo on trial - and condemned him - for supporting the principle of heliocentrism (the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun) rather than its own, human-decreed vision of a stationary earth at the centre of a human-decreed, limited universe.

But more than an indictment on society, it’s a hurdle in the way of scientific progress. Willful ignorance always is.

Given that, as palaeoanthropologist John Hawks says, “Africa was [once] full of hominin populations” - and also that, “What is weird about humans is not that we had genetic exchanges with past people, what is weird is that past people are not here today” (quoted on pages 117 and 138 of the book) - surely we want to know?

Surely indeed.

Stories

If Gareth Patterson knows anything, he knows how to tell stories, and this book is filled with them - intriguing, sometimes quite-difficult-to-credit, and occasionally even funny.

This is important. Stories are the basis on which we build our societies, and they help us interpret and understand the world around us. The great ones leave us thinking, and even sometimes questioning the things we think we know - which is fundamental to increasing our knowledge of the world, and thus, ultimately, to our survival.

And so I suppose it’s quite satisfying that Gareth’s book doesn’t give us all the answers - I was left wondering, for example, why the only evidence of Otang’s existence comes from reports of sightings, and from casts of footprints (although Gareth does report seeing at least one handprint - but it was raining that day, and it disappeared quickly into the mud).

Where, for example, is the scat (droppings)? Doesn’t the Otang leave any other signs - like damaged plant material - that an experienced tracker could follow?

But most importantly, it leaves us asking two more fundamental things: are we really doing enough to protect the forests in which these wonderful creatures may be living - and which, ultimately, protect our own existence?

And are we really anywhere near a full understanding of this strange and marvellous world of ours?

Beyond the Secret Elephants is published by Tracey McDonald Publishers. It's available as a paperback or in e-book format.

p.s. If you live in Knysna, aren't you delighted to know that the forests have even more secrets than you thought?

p.p.s: You can walk the forests with Gareth on one of his 'Secret Elephants Forest Experiences.' Details on garethpatterson.com

Knysna Destination Video - ITFF Africa 2020

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0200

MEDIA RELEASE: 28 February, 2020

The organiser of the International Tourism Film Festival Africa (ITFF), Caroline Ungersbock, has welcomed a video entered by two young Knysna-based filmmakers.

Rean (24) and his brother, Chant Messina (20), filmed, produced, and edited the 2-minute, 58-second video, and also wrote and performed original music for the project, which is now live on their YouTube channel, Hermit State.

Ms. Ungersbock said she was struck by the quality of the imagery and the storytelling in the video.

“ITFF Africa is a platform for everyone who wants to show off their destinations, and these boys seem to have captured the essence of Knysna very well.

“It’s the kind of video that makes you want to visit the place - and that’s exactly what ITFF aims to achieve.

“We believe that we need to grow and nurture young talent, and the International Film Festival is a great platform for that. We wish them all the best through the jury process.”

The video was funded by a grant from 34-South Restaurant at the Knysna Waterfront.

“We took a chance,” said 34-South’s co-owner, Charles van Tonder, “and gave the boys complete creative control.

“We wanted to see how young people would interpret Knysna, and I have to say I believe that Chant and Raen have captured the two things that make this town unique: the Knysna forests, and our beaches, where there’s enormous space for everyone.”

The video is expected to garner excellent coverage for Knysna: besides a screening at Africa Travel Week (during WTM Africa in Cape Town in April), all entries from South Africa will be screened on Brics TV - which has over 400 million viewers worldwide.

Watch the video at www.bit.ly/HermitKnysna
International Tourism Film Festival Africa: www.itff.africa
34 South Knysna: www.34south.biz

ENDS

The filmmakers

Raen Messina: "I am a 24 year old filmmaker living in Knysna. Most of my experience has come through freelance work. I am the owner of a YouTube channel named Hermit State, where I post original music videos and content. I am also in the process of making and releasing several short films. I am currently studying in George doing a 3 month skills program with iKasi Media."

Chant Messina: "I am a 20 year old living in Knysna. I am an independent filmmaker, artist and musician and I enjoy travel, all art forms, and gardening."

Contact

Raen Messina raencreates@gmail.com 064 874 7688
Hermit State on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2SgUhaS75FJ5dU2lyRkMdw

DISCLOSURE: This project was proposed by Martin Hatchuel

Horse racing in Knysna, 1882

Wed, 18 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0200

A Thesen Island secret we -ahem!- bet you never knew

Fancy a flutter on the ponies? Our great-great-great grandparents here in Knysna certainly did!

We recently came across a number of cuttings from The George & Knysna Herald - the local newspaper of the time - that showed that the old folks arranged at least two major race days here, both on the 25th of May: first in 1882, and then in 1883.

We don't know why they chose that date: - even Google couldn’t help us, although we did learn that Queen Victoria’s birthday fell on the 24th. Perhaps one of our readers knows? If so, please educate us! (PLACE CLIENT'S EMAIL ADDY HERE)

Under the banner of the Knysna Turf Club, these were well-organised events that offered substantial prizes. The programme for 1882, for example, included a Turf Club Purse (stakes: 50 pounds) and a Ladies’ Purse - which was open only to “gentlemen riders.” (We know. We don’t know either...)

From what we’ve been able to gather, the race course itself was laid out on Thesen Island - which makes sense, since the earliest maps of Knysna identified it as Paarden Island: 'paarden’ being the Dutch for horses. And that would have made sense, too: at first It was basically just a low-lying field where Knysna’s earliest settlers kept their livestock. Later, though, it was bought, renamed, and put to use as a harbour, sawmill and oyster farm by the Thesen family, who came to Knysna from Norway in the 1860s, and set up as very successful timber merchants, whalers, and ship owners.

Today, of course, you aren't likely to find any four-legged horses on Thesen Island. But if you’re desperate for some racing, perhaps you can train a few Knysna seahorses?

(Jokes! Seahorses are far too chilled to race. And anyway, you’re not allowed to collect them, because they’re endangered. But they ARE here - and if you don’t want to swim, you can see a few of them in the aquarium at the Thesen Island offices of the Garden Route National Park.)

(PLACE CLIENT'S CALL TO ACTION HERE)

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Featured image: Wikimedia (public domain)

The Fishy Smiths

Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve read and written a lot about the coelacanth, so I’ve known about Prof Mike Bruton for a while now: he took over as director of the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology - now the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity - after Margaret Smith retired.

In particular, I knew that he was a highly respected scientist, but I didn’t know that he’s a great storyteller, too. He really is, and this book proves it.

I was given The Fishy Smiths, together with Prof Burton's The Annotated Old Fourlegs, as a gift, and I can’t get enough of both of them.

The Fishy Smiths is more than just a biography of two of South Africa’s great scientists.

It tells their stories without being blind to their faults, and, best of all, it reveals their characters in a way that I hadn’t realised. Specifically, for example, I’ve learned that JLB Smith had a wicked sense of humour, although it seems he didn’t share it too often. I suppose you had to prove yourself bright enough before you made the cut...

Also, JLB liked a good prank when he was a youngster. While he was at Victoria College in Stellenbosch (around 1918), he and a group of mates turned all the clocks in their residence, as well as those on the main building and the DR church, back a bit. It caused chaos, since almost no one wore wrist watches in those days.

But probably the group’s funniest one was the time they placed chamber pots “on the pinnacles of the towers of the prestigious boys’ and girls’ schools of the town. A howling south-easter blew that night, making this a very hazardous undertaking that required all their considerable climbing skills (JLB was an accomplished climber)... The next morning the students brought the schools ‘new badge’ to the attention of the Headmaster, the formidable Paul Roos (South Africa’s first Springbok Rugby captain). Roos was furious, and ordered the caretaker to take the obscene object down. When this worthy failed to dislodge it, Roos instructed the school cadets to shoot the offending object off the tower. The Girls’ School did not have cadets, and the chamber pot stayed on top of their tower for several weeks until the south-easter blew it off.”

Smith’s famous and almost insane dedication to his work, as well as that dedication's various consequences for his family and the other people around him, come through clearly in Mike Bruton’s telling.

I’ve always thought the story of JLB’s identification of the coelacanth, and his hunt (pun intended) for the second specimen, was one of South Africa’s great science adventures. Mike Bruton does it justice - adding quite a few nuances of which I wasn’t aware.

Also, having worked with William Smith (JLB & Margaret’s only son, the South African teaching superhero, and the founder and developer of Knysna’s Featherbed Nature Reserve), I learned some new things about him, too - which was both fun and enlightening. For instance, I somehow never really registered that William himself flew on two legs of that famous flight that went from Pretoria to Durban to the Comores, and back via Grahamstown to Cape Town to retrieve the second coelacanth, and show it to DF Malan (who ordered the Air Force to make the flight). Or that he preferred a tour of the local air force base to the stiff coelacanth viewing party on the Prime Minister’s lawn, where his dad presented the fish.

As you can probably tell, I’m loving this book. It’s deffs not going into the Hospice box for my end-of-year clear-out.

Read my article about the Coelacanth on knysnamuseums.co.za
As of 4 August, 2019, I've written all the material that appears on knysnamuseums.co.za. I also designed the site navigation, chose the images, and found the embedded videos
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The White Lady at the Garden of Eden

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The Frontier Wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were fought between the British settlers on the one hand, and the indigenous Xhosa people of the Eastern Cape and the eastern part of the Western Cape on the other. By all accounts long and bitter, they left no corner of the Colony untouched - not even the remote region around the sleepy Knysna Lagoon.

The population of the area being so small, the locals decided to declare a sanctuary on the farm Stofpad, near Wittedrif, north of the present-day Garden of Eden. Stofpad was situated at a strategic point on the road to the interior - the road we now call Prince Alfred’s Pass. The settlers agreed that if ever any of them were attacked, they’d all move their families, their servants, and their livestock to Stofpad, where they would defend themselves together.

They didn’t have to wait very long: the Xhosa attacked the farm Melkhoutkraal on the banks of the Knysna Lagoon early in 1802. (George Rex, the founder of Knysna, would buy this same property and settle there almost two years later.)

Knowing what to expect, the settlers had begged the colonial government on many occasions for help to defend themselves - but the government refused them every time.

The settlers, of course, were angry: as they saw it, the colonial government consistently refused to defend the very people it expected to look after its interests in Outeniqualand.

They’d had enough. The call went out to come to Stofpad, and the entire settler population set out - in their ox wagons, on horseback, even on foot.

But they were an independent-minded lot, these settlers, and they struggled to agree on anything. So, instead of standing together as they’d planned to do, they split into factions, and, instead of vigorously defending themselves, they moved away. Separately, of course.

One group chose to ride westwards towards Mossel Bay, where they hoped to find a ship to take them to Cape Town.

Travelling on rough tracks in the forests, this party was ambushed by the Xhosa at Die Poort - today, the Garden of Eden. Four of them were killed in the battle, and one couple escaped and returned to Stofpad. But the rest - all of them women and children - the Xhosas took as hostages.

The Xhosas delivered their ransom demand to Stofpad on the following day, but, suspecting another trap, the farmers followed them to their hide-out near Fisanthoek, north-west of the Garden of Eden. Despite the fact that they found no hostages there - they’d already been moved to Gansvlei, from where they would later be released - the settlers attacked, killing a total of eleven people.

These events finally forced the government’s hand. Not that it did very much: it simply sent a small stock of ammunition to Johan Frederick Meeding, its representative in Plettenberg Bay.

But Meeding had had enough, too. He wrote to his superiors that he wanted to return with his family to Cape Town.

The Lieutenant-Governor was shocked! He strongly disapproved of Meeding’s request. It would, he said in his letter of reply, “set an example which would certainly be followed by others and the country most probably deserted.”

Despite the governor’s sternly-worded letter, a number of families did leave the district - but the Battle of Die Poort marked the end of the Frontier Wars in this part of the county. Life would take a more peaceful course for the people who stayed.

For everyone except, it seems, one poor soul.

Let’s have a look at that press cutting of July 1992 once again. A Cape Town family on holiday in the area, it says, was driving from Plettenberg Bay to Knysna when suddenly, as they passed through the Garden of Eden, their three year-old daughter began to cry.

“Mommy! Take this lady away!”

“What lady, sweetheart?” said her mother.

“The White Lady, take her away!”

The child screamed horribly, and backed into the corner of the car, trying to get as much space as she could between herself and the empty passenger seat next to her.

Her father drove on, and the child did calm down eventually - but only after they’d emerged from the eerie forests that surround the road in that part of the country even today.

Concerned, the parents made enquiries in Knysna. Had anyone else seen a White Lady in those parts?

Yes, people said. They had: on at least two different occasions. She appeared once in the car of a local accountant who drove that route regularly, and once again to a family from Bellville who were visiting the Garden Route.

But she hasn’t been seen since.

One more thing: up to the time the White Lady appeared to the child, no one had ever been killed in any motor vehicle accident on that part of the road. So it’s interesting to ask: does the White Lady really exist? And if she does - or did - and given the tragedy that might have happened to her, is she perhaps the ghost of one of the people who died here in 1802?

And if she hasn’t been seen in nearly thirty years - has she finally found the rest she was looking for?

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Hentie’s Botel - My Avalon

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Hentie’s Botel - My Avalon

Martin Hatchuel

34 South salutes Hentie van Rooyen - the man who built the legendary Hentie’s Botel on the shores of the Knysna Lagoon. And one of the people who really knew how to gooi Attitude At Our Latitude

It was because of Hentie’s Botel that I came to live in Knysna. It was that kind of place. It had that kind of effect on you.

Maybe that was because Hentie himself, Hentie van Rooyen, was a dreamer.

It took him six years to get permission to build his 22-roomed hotel on the water. Had to get a Private Bill through two Houses of Parliament before he could begin - this was in the days when we had both a Lower House and a Senate - and everybody said he was mad. “Build a hotel on stilts? You’re crazy. Whole shebang’ll sink,” that’s what they said.

But Hentie believed differently.

So he made himself a pump from an old engine and shot a jet of water into the floor of the Lagoon to displace the sand and that way he fixed his pylons firmly in place. Then onto them he built his Botel - cost him more than 12,000 pounds when it opened in ’58 - with its bedrooms on the first floor and downstairs a dining room and a lounge and a boat-yard, Hentiecraft, where you could hire boats, some of them built by Hentie himself (and he wasn’t just a builder and a boat builder - he decorated the whole place with furniture he’d made with his own hands. Good quality stuff, too).

That was the kind of person he was: an innovator, interested in all kinds of things, someone who thought things through.

Those ball-and-claw feet on Knysna’s traditional stinkwood and yellowwood furniture? Hentie watched them making them in the factories where he’d learned his craft; laboriously, slowly cutting out those ornate wooden legs, took them hours to do. Watched and thought about it and, by the simple trick of turning the whole thing upside down, showed them how they could produce them in - listen to this - one tenth of the time.

Soon all the factories around town were using Hentie’s technique, and they’re using it still today.

And skiing. Hentie’s wife, Rita, worked at the movie house and showed him a film of someone skiing in the States. “I can make that,” he said, and set about building the slalom on which Springbok skier Deirdre Barnard (daughter of Prof. Chris) learned to ski. They were a famous pair, Hentie at the helm and Deirdre skiing behind. But Hentie and Rita were even more famous, running the Botel, he in the front, entertaining the guests, welcoming and friendly, she in the back cooking and cleaning - and both of them proud of their position as the country’s first official water ski instructors. And he built a kind-of-a winch thing with a seat that went onto the side of his boat. “Teach You To Ski In 10 Minutes,” he advertised. And he did; there’s many people who learned the sport that way.

He had a ski ramp built out in the water, too, always a great attraction during his famous Weekend Regattas, and the municipality sponsored him to become the first man to jump it - not on a ski, but in a boat. This was in 1960 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of South Africa’s Act of Union.

And of course he did it. Easily.

But he wasn’t just a daredevil: he was, like I’ve said, a dreamer, too. Together with the famous WWII flying ace, Bob Kershaw, he wanted to build a marina here in Knysna, on the Lagoon; had the plans drawn up and everything, even bought the dredging equipment. That wasn’t one of their best investments, though - the government never OK’d the idea. But you can’t help wondering what Hentie would have thought of the Knysna Quays and Thesen’s Islands as they are now.

I’m sure he’d have loved ‘em.

Hentie built his Botel on the site where Laguna Grove stands today - and it was the perfect place for water sports, so he built a long deck across the front where people could gather to watch his regattas, when he’d lay on a programme of entertainment for his guests. And for the locals, too - Hentie’s was a favourite with the locals.

But Hentie’s Botel was more than a hotel: it was the social centre of the town, and I’ve got an old clipping from SA HOTEL REVIEW, August 1961, with a picture of two women in the lounge, one of them at the piano, the other reading a magazine, her legs demurely crossed (“Guests can relax in this comfortable lounge, which has been attractively furnished and provided with model boats and ornaments”). Picture of the dining room, too (“the proprietors believe in informality for hotel guests and others. Visitors may come to meals bare foot and in shorts, if they wish. Only bikinis are banned”).

Hentie sold in ’64 - although he didn’t retire ‘til ‘86, always busy with his first loves, boat building and cabinet making, right up to the time he passed away in Somerset West on June 28, 2002.

The Botel changed hands more than once after Hentie left it, and it was burned to the scuppers on the 16th of June, 1972 (burned - but never sunk) by its last owner, Jacobus van As. Went to prison because of that; had to return the insurance payout, too.

Funny that his name was van As - “As” is the Afrikaans for “Ash.” And the Botel site? It was also the site of the old naval dockyard - which burned down twice: in 1821 and 1824. Arson. Every time.

‘64 was the year I first visited Knysna, the year I began to develop Attitude At Our Latitude. It was our one and only family holiday in the Cape and I was six. Couldn’t sleep because I was sure I’d fall off the bed and slip through the floorboards and drown in the water below.

But that was the first time I smelled the Lagoon - that fresh salt smell you get when the weather’s just so - and I knew right then that Knysna was where I wanted to live. Couldn’t have described it, but I knew straight away that Hentie’s Botel would be my Avalon.

I didn’t visit Knysna again until I came to live here in ‘83 - and by that time the Botel had passed into legend. But even just knowing that once it had been here, that once it had been real, that’s enough.

That’s what makes Knysna such a fine place to be.

You can download this story as a pdf - perhaps for display in your guest house? - courtesy of 34 South Restaurant, Knysna
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34 South Knysna tribute to Henties Botel from Martin Hatchuel

A note about that video clip

The clip above was extracted from a longer (42 minute) video made by the television teacher, William Smith. Watch 'The Garden Route 1960 here:

The Phantom Moth of Phantom Pass

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The lovely, gravelled, tree-lined Phantom Pass runs uphill from the Knysna Lagoon and over towards Rheenendal, where the Millwood Goldfields and Jubilee Creek lie sleepy under the deep evergreen of the Knysna Forests.

Sleepy, but not peaceful. Because these forests hide as many tragedies as you’ll find wherever you find man and his awful ways – and men have been trying to rule here for hundreds of years.

So you would suppose, then, that the name ‘Phantom Pass’ would refer to a ghost which might appear to travellers in the graveyard hours, terrorising them, and leaving them bereft. But in fact it’s named for a moth: Leto venus, the phantom moth.

And its story is even sadder than you could imagine.

The French explorer and naturalist, Francois le Vaillant, spent six months in the Knysna district in 1782, recording all the most important natural phenomena that he found here.

But if the phantom moth is so well known, why did he never describe it? And why doesn’t it appear in other texts from the early nineteenth century?

Could it be that the phantom moth didn’t exist before 1881?

Victoria Esposito was said to have been the most beautiful of the silk spinners of Gouna. And the silk spinners of Gouna were a group of about forty families who were brought to Knysna from Italy in 1881: the British Government had supported the dreams of a wealthy farmer in the district – the Honourable Henry Frederick Francis Adair Barrington – who hoped to create a silk industry here. The worms, he thought (although it seems he never tested his theory) would thrive on the wild mulberries which grow aplenty in the Knysna Forests. But South Africa’s wild mulberry – Trimeria grandiflora – bears no resemblance at all to the ‘real’ mulberry – Morus alba – upon which the silkworm exclusively feeds.

And because of this fussiness on the part of one tiny worm, the silk spinners were stranded without work or means of working – and, with the government embarrassed by their presence and Barrington now disinterested in their plight, found themselves left to rot in a clearing in the Knysna forest.

Incensed by this official inaction, the proud and beautiful Victoria decided to make an informal loan of (well – take) one Barrington’s horses, and ride to Knysna to find a ship to take her and her family back home.

Victoria rode out on a stormy night in September (a month not normally associated with bad weather), her path lit only by the flashes of light that tore at the sky.

Both horse and rider were terrified, and the animal bolted. Victoria could only cling to its neck and hope.

The lightning struck just as the pair emerged onto the high ground at the edge of the forest at the very top of the Pass. It was a direct hit and girl and horse were killed instantly. But the power of the girl’s beauty was so great that, instead of transforming to ash, their bodies were transformed into moths.

Exquisite brown and grey moths which appear again and again every year in spring – each of them with Victoria’s beautiful, baleful eyes etched forever on its wings.

Author

Martin Hatchuel

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Sebastian Unrau