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Stoep Chat

’s weekly stories, observations and conversations from Knysna and beyond.

1 April 2021

BABY DOLPHIN: LOST, ORPHANED OR STOLEN?

MOST of us have heard of humpback whales, but perhaps not everyone knows about humpback dolphins. That may be because there are so few of them, only about 500 along our coast. In fact,…

MOST of us have heard of humpback whales, but perhaps not everyone knows about humpback dolphins. That may be because there are so few of them, only about 500 along our coast. In fact, the humpback dolphin is the most endangered marine mammal in South Africa. Something needs to be done urgently to help protect them, but scientists say not a lot is known about these shy, elusive creatures, so researchers are trying to get more information about them to help guide how best to protect them. University of Stellenbosch PhD student Sasha Dines is doing some of that research…

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25 March 2021

THE POWER OF SUN AND WIND

GOT caught out by load-shedding last week. Didn’t matter, really, as it was nearly bedtime, but got a skrik when suddenly we were plunged into darkness. So it was with a happy…

GOT caught out by load-shedding last week. Didn’t matter, really, as it was nearly bedtime, but got a skrik when suddenly we were plunged into darkness. So it was with a happy heart that I read that the government had given the go-ahead to eight private companies to build new power stations due to come online in August next year. Even happier that most of them will be clean wind and solar power, instead of polluting coal power. These companies will build them on time or face penalties – unlike Eskom that has been building that massive coal-fired Medupi power…

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18 March 2021

FIRST CATCH YOUR HIPPO

ANY of you know the colour of hippo sweat? It’s red. I saw it myself on a hippo that had sadly died during a capture operation at Lake St Lucia back in the…

ANY of you know the colour of hippo sweat? It’s red. I saw it myself on a hippo that had sadly died during a capture operation at Lake St Lucia back in the 1980s when hippo capture was still in its early stages. The huge animal, lying on its side, had tiny red beads of fluid all over its skin. “Hippo sweat,” the ranger said. I was fascinated. Red sweat. The topic of hippos came up on Sunday when a young relative was telling us what he had learned about hippo and their mighty teeth that could kill an adult.…

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11 March 2021

ONE YEAR LATER

TODAY a year ago, on March 11, the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Most of us probably don’t even remember that date. At that stage it was all a bit distant, happening…

TODAY a year ago, on March 11, the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Most of us probably don’t even remember that date. At that stage it was all a bit distant, happening over there in Europe and Asia. But I am sure we all remember that mind-blowing Monday, March 23rd, when President Ramaphosa announced lockdown. It was such a startling, life-changing event. I was at the lovely Sani Lodge Backpackers in the Drakensberg, over-nighting before starting the five-day Giant’s Cup hiking trail, planned many months before. How beautiful the Drakensberg was, green and majestic, and later a thunder…

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4 March 2021

ANIMAL SPOOR AND HUMAN TRASH

One of the things I love about being the first person on the beach is looking at the tracks in the sand that tell a story of what happened while we were sleeping. I…

One of the things I love about being the first person on the beach is looking at the tracks in the sand that tell a story of what happened while we were sleeping. I love that sense of discovery. Here at Noetzie my favourite find is spoor of the Cape clawless otter. I love their prints, their front paws looking so much like little hands. One of my loveliest otter memories is walking along the rocks in Sinclair Nature Reserve and looking down at an otter lying on its back in the sea, holding a fish in its “hands”, munching…

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25 February 2021

TEXAS BIG FREEZE LOAD-SHEDDING

THERE is a funny YouTube video doing the rounds about load-shedding in that giant oil state of Texas. It’s called “Load-shedding Is Our Latest Export!” A happy chap announces: “First Charlize Theron. Then Trevor…

THERE is a funny YouTube video doing the rounds about load-shedding in that giant oil state of Texas. It’s called “Load-shedding Is Our Latest Export!” A happy chap announces: “First Charlize Theron. Then Trevor Noah. Now Load-Shedding! South Africa keeps on producing world class talent. Load-Shedding, you started in 2007. No one believed in you Load-Shedding, but you were like: ‘I’m coming!’ and now you’ve made it into Texas! All that neglect, corruption and mismanagement finally paid off! Keep shining Load-Shedding! Never forget where you came from!” There were two factors that caused Texas’ load-shedding: the first was the extreme…

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18 February 2021

MICE INVADERS

I was rudely awakened on Sunday night with little claws scratching my scalp. Usually when something wakes me at night it takes a moment to work out what it was. Not this time. I…

I was rudely awakened on Sunday night with little claws scratching my scalp. Usually when something wakes me at night it takes a moment to work out what it was. Not this time. I shot upright and reached for the light. I knew exactly what it was. A mouse. Sure enough, there it was under the pillow. The little blighter! I slammed my hand down next to it, and told it in colourful language to get lost. It shot off under the bed and out the door. What was it trying to do? Collect my hair for nesting material? Or…

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11 February 2021

TIDES HIGH AND LOW

Sitting on the rocks the other day watching the waves surge in and out, we got talking about tides. Tides have been so much a part of the human story, and throughout the ages…

Sitting on the rocks the other day watching the waves surge in and out, we got talking about tides. Tides have been so much a part of the human story, and throughout the ages coastal people have adapted their lives – and livelihoods - to that daily ebb and flow. From prehistoric times our “strandloper” ancestors would have developed a knowledge of tides to enable them to forage for shellfish at the best times. In the early days of shipping the old ships were dependent on the high tide to sail safely in and out of harbours. “She sails with…

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4 February 2021

SILK-SPINNERS OF GOUNA

IMAGINE if Knysna’s silk industry had worked. It could have become one of the commodities the town was known for: Knysna yellowwood, Knysna oysters, Knysna silk. I was thinking about that last week…

IMAGINE if Knysna’s silk industry had worked. It could have become one of the commodities the town was known for: Knysna yellowwood, Knysna oysters, Knysna silk. I was thinking about that last week when writing about possible new industries for Knysna, which led me to reread the chapter on Knysna’s silk-spinners in Winnie Tapson’s 1961 book Timber and Tides. What an intriguing tale. On rereading it, I realised that Tapson had actually met the last of the original Italian immigrants, Luigia Scioca (née Fardini), who had been brought to Knysna by the government in 1881 with 50 other Italians to…

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28 January 2021

IMAGINATION AND THE ECONOMY

If I write the word “Covid”, many of you will stop reading, but hang in there. I want to talk about possibilities that Covid may create. First, let’s go back to the time of…

If I write the word “Covid”, many of you will stop reading, but hang in there. I want to talk about possibilities that Covid may create. First, let’s go back to the time of the Black Death, the bubonic plague that wiped out half the world population between 1347 and 1352. It also brought about major economic change. As we know, the people who worked the land in medieval Europe were serfs who were forced to work for the lord they were bonded to. They were allowed to cultivate a piece of the lord’s land for their own use, but…

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21 January 2021

COCKROACH ENCOUNTERS

I see South African scientists have discovered chemical compounds that they hope can be developed into a super-duper new malaria drug. Good news. I hope it works out. Got me thinking about insects and…

I see South African scientists have discovered chemical compounds that they hope can be developed into a super-duper new malaria drug. Good news. I hope it works out. Got me thinking about insects and their impact on people. Apart from killer mosquitoes, there are fleas that can carry plague like the Black Death, ticks that give you tick-bite fever, bees and wasps that sting, putsi flies that lay eggs in you and many others. All nasty, yet none of them makes me gril. Unlike cockroaches. They really make me gril and I don’t know why. I discovered there are huge…

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14 January 2021

A NEW YEAR, A NEW TRAVEL

Taking down last year’s calendar I was struck by how beautiful the December photograph was, showing a beach on Lake Malawi. Reminded me of Cape Maclear, where we had camped back in the 80s.…

Taking down last year’s calendar I was struck by how beautiful the December photograph was, showing a beach on Lake Malawi. Reminded me of Cape Maclear, where we had camped back in the 80s. I loved Malawi. I don’t think I have ever come across people who were friendlier. What got me set on Malawi back then was reading Laurens van der Post’s Venture to the Interior. It made me want to see Malawi’s Mount Mulanje. After a five-hour bus journey from Blantyre, and a night in a grubby “government rest house”, we started our hike up Mulanje – me…

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7 January 2021

HOW WILL YOU RESPOND TO THE NEW YEAR? GOLD

New Year has come and gone and I have not heard one person mourn its passing. It’s all a case of “good riddance”. Understandable, isn’t it? 2020 will go down in history as the…

New Year has come and gone and I have not heard one person mourn its passing. It’s all a case of “good riddance”. Understandable, isn’t it? 2020 will go down in history as the year of the horrible pandemic that killed 1.85 million people, filled hospitals to bursting, drove many people to bankruptcy and hammered economies. We all want it to end. We all want life to go back to normal. But, of course, wishing won’t make it happen, nor will the fact that the calendar has turned a page make it happen. The reality is that the pandemic is…

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24 December 2020

Christmas in the Time of Covid

CHRISTMAS and New Year celebrations will be different on the Garden Route this year with many festive events cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and beaches closed. Sad for so many of us who…

Sometimes I have gone against the national tide of moving to the coast for Christmas and New Year, and have headed north into the heat and the dust of the Kalahari desert. Sounds crazy in mid summer, but they have been wonderful Christmases. Takes us two days to get to the Kagalagadi Transfrontier Park from the coast. I remember us arriving for New Year at the Gharagab wilderness camp, hot, sweaty and a bit tetchy. “Let’s take this bubbly to the viewing platform before we even unpack.” I wrapped glasses in my kikoy and walked over the hot sand to…

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17 December 2020

THE WEIRD AND WACKY “SILLY SEASON” IS HERE.

IT’S the “silly season” again when almost everyone is on holiday, there is not much important news, so newspapers fill their pages with trivia. I love it. All those wacky stories instead of the…

IT’S the “silly season” again when almost everyone is on holiday, there is not much important news, so newspapers fill their pages with trivia. I love it. All those wacky stories instead of the daily grind of important but usually bad news. Predictably, many of this year’s silly season stories have a Covid-19 element. One published by Reuters that really tickled me was about a Romanian shoemaker. In May this year Grigore Lup decided to make a shoe that was a massive size 75. He got the idea for the elongated shoe after he had noticed many people were ignoring…

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10 December 2020

PARTIES GO VIRAL

I remember well the joy of finishing matric. It felt as if we had been let out of jail! We celebrated of course, as matric classes always did, and all was good. Today it’s…

I remember well the joy of finishing matric. It felt as if we had been let out of jail! We celebrated of course, as matric classes always did, and all was good. Today it’s a different story. Going to a matric party now is like walking into a petri dish of the Covid-19 virus, as those who went to the Rage Festivals in Ballito, Durban or Umhlanga have found out. Many of those matrics are now Covid-positive, and several ICUs in Durban’s private hospitals are full as a result. In Knysna, 10 people who went to a local matric party…

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