Here I sit - head spinning, just
having driven back from our timeshare week at Beacon Isle.
See:
www.martinkruger.com/bi2006/
Why is my head spinning ? Ag sommer.
Actually because there are things that I don't understand.
i) Without getting boringly
historical, I read in Plett that there is a
"midden" just east of Arch Rock which is 800 metres
by TEN METRES DEEP. Simply put, this is the empty
shells of seafood that was eaten en masse over
a long period of time. Presumably by the strandlopers
one thousand, ten thousand ? years ago.
So they were there first.
The Dutch - 1642, British Settlers 1820.
Would we be better off if the strandlopers ran the country ?
ii) The coelacanth.
My Dad had a school girlfriend who became Margaret Mary Smith.
Wife and illustrator with the famous, fabulous Professor JLB Smith.
(Sea Bible: Sea Fishes of Southern Africa)
Parents to William Smith mathematician of Knysna.
At the wedding of a pal in around 1979 we had occasion to
stop over at one of the stone huts on Robberg Nature Reserve.
The curtain was of canvas, with a diary detailing all the fish caught
by the occupants since the early 1900's - with drawings of said fish.
To my astonishment there was a drawing of the coelacanth.
Now this was many, many years before Miss Courtney Latimer
of the East London museum identified the fish caught by a trawler
off Chalumna River. So, a coelacanth was caught, or washed up
at Robberg in 1910. I phoned Mrs. Smith - who already knew about it.
Boy, was I intrigued !!!! You bet.
So much so that I took my family off to the Comores Islands where
there are waters over 300 metres deep...
visit: www.martins.co.za/comores/
and click on the coelacanth
link.
Note: They found more off
Sodwana Beach a few years ago,
near Durban. Because of the great depth a diver died.
REALLY interested ? Go to www.dinofish.com
Eish, there are more question than answers...