Kunyakua

End of February I was notified of the big  expatriation.  We are going to the West Coast.  Not to tranquil Jacobsbaai, quaint Paternoster, beautiful Langebaan or any other place within 15 minutes of Woollies Foods.  We are going to Strandfontein.  So you do not know where it is?  Don’t feel alone, you fall within the 99^th percentile of all our friends (and myself).  Had to dig out the map book to find out where we are going.

Strandfontein was apparently named after a spring on the beach, but I have not yet found it and it is not marked at all.  Or I might have seen it and just do not know!  I will tell you a bit later about the first oke to build a brick house in Town.  A Mr Fryer, remember the name.  I also have some 7^th degree of separation connection to this place via my in laws.  Some family on that side owned the only hotel before it disappeared (would like to tell the story about the hotel disappearance, but has not been able to verify the story and do not want to be sued for libel).  Maybe later.  One of the three caravan sites are also still named after the family.

In the context of my work history, Strandfontein is exactly where the Sishen-Saldanha railway line sweeps in a wide arch away from its inland track to hug the coast for the rest of the journey to Saldanha Bay.  If that does not help, we are about 7km below the Olifantsriver mouth at Papendorp, and about 7km north of Doornbaai.  Or better yet, about 50km north of Lambertsbaai, the home of the Muisbosskerm.

The regime here was DA or a DA coalition government, and I am not sure if they deserve the credit but seems like everything is in order.  Road shoulders clean of rubbish.  Secondary and even tertiary roads are well maintained, and just before the elections they did some patching of the road surface in our little neighbourhood.  Might have been an election ploy and not sure if it worked.  We somehow missed out on the elections with us being here and our ward up in Johannesburg.  Still have not figured out who won the local election here this time round.

The new house will take some adjustment, but you cannot beat the view from our veranda.  We can see all the way up the coast almost to Papendorp, unbroken white beaches, and just behind us the cliffs start that runs alongside the coast all the way to Doornbaai.  On the day I arrived the dolphins put up a show in the bay, and I knew I would survive here…

So when do you become a true blood “weskusser”?  I always thought it is when you eat your first crayfish, but know I found out the area is actually famous for another delicacy: sheep’s heads!!!  The have sheep’s head eating competitions here!  Oops.