Still Bay, Southern Cape

My mom’s side of the family has holidayed in Still Bay since she was a child, and it became my first holiday destination, too. There are a few places to hang out in Still Bay: the main beach with its tidal fish traps, the beaches along the Goukou River, and Lappiesbaai to the east. My uncle and aunt’s beach house is near the main beach. One of my earliest memories is of my cousin taking my sister Karen (pictured above) and me (above right) down to the beach to catch klipfish in the fish traps, which were built in the intertidal zone hundreds of years ago by the first inhabitants of the area. My cousins are older than my sister and me and they had probably been told to keep us busy. After fishing, we usually walked to the harbour to buy ice cream. The days spent next to the Goukou River were just as wonderful. We played in the sun all day while our parents napped or read under beach umbrellas. I spent hours trying to “surf” on a bodyboard; sometimes my dad would tow us through the water while mimicking the sound of a motorboat. When we became teenagers, it was no longer cool to hang out with the family. We befriended other kids in Lappiesbaai, where the campsite was next to the beach and where hunky lifeguards kept watch from their red chairs. The annual touch rugby tournament was a big deal then, as it is now. Teenage stamina is a wonderful thing: We’d spend the whole day in the sun watching the tournament until Miss Touch was crowned late in the afternoon, then we’d dance the night away at Drie Ankers. But as I grew older, the touch rugby began to feel like too much of a hassle and I felt like I’d danced to “Queen of Hearts” by Bad Boys Blue with one too many sweaty boys. So I started to hang out with my family at the beach house again. I spent my days reading on the stoep and my evenings playing Balderdash with my aunts and uncles. Now things have come full circle and I splash in the shallows of the Goukou River with my own two daughters… – Esma Marnewick