Shaka`S Story

SHAKA`S

STORY

Greta Edwards

AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

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Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

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Phone: 0800.197.4150

© 2013 by Greta Edwards. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/30/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-0081-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-0082-9 (e)

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Chapter One

I`M Alive!

Chapter Two

Skoenmakerskop And Other Fishing Spots

Chapter Three

Mary`S Holiday—Sedgefield

Chapter Four

Rosy

Chapter Five

Kei River Mouth

Chapter Six

Keurboomstrand Next

Chapter Seven

Living In The Forest

Chapter Eight

Herding The Cattle

Chapter Nine

The Antique Shop In The Forest—Snakes And Monkeys

Chapter Ten

Moving In

Chapter Eleven

A Visitor From England

Chapter Twelve

Glen From Australia

Acknowledgements

Dedicated to: Aunty Tit Bits

FOREWORD

This story is based on fact and takes place in South Africa, beginning in the year 1987. It describes some of the most stunning terrain in the Eastern Cape as far north as the Transkei. The adventures begin in Port Elizabeth taking us down the Garden Route as far as Sedgefield towards Cape Town. We divert inland for a while over the breath-taking Outeniqua mountains to Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo (in Afrikaans the Klein Karoo) home of the ostrich farms and the Cango Caves, one of the great natural wonders of the world. We then travel north along the Wild coast to the Kei River Mouth. The Great Kei River divides the Ciskei from the Transkei. It is during these adventures that we experience all a traveller could wish for. Mountains, near and far, dark and grey, sharp and green some seeming to roll one into the other are subtly coloured grey, fawn, pink, and even red in the sunset. The side of the mountain facing the sea close to Port Elizabeth is covered in bushy scrub, then, abruptly over the ridge the earth becomes dry and bare as it slopes down to the Little Karoo, a much smaller version of the Big Karoo.

The tides of the Indian ocean travel up the golden white sands often turning to a raging, crashing torrent, waves leaving froth covered debris, bright pieces of rope, dead birds and fish entangled in fishing line, bits of net and even occasionally a glass float. These beaches were once home to the Strandlopers, a group of indigenous people who survived with what they gathered from the sea and the shore. Evidence of their existence is found in the middens which are made up of broken pottery, bones and the broken shells of the seafood they ate.

The famous stinkwood and yellowwood trees can be found in the Knysna forest, Tsitsikamma. These trees including wild pear, witels and iron wood were used to craft traditional and modern furniture, the Cape Dutch style being a classic. Many years ago, the stinkwood was casually used for railway sleepers, until, like many other things in nature, it was in danger of becoming extinct. Eventually, it was controlled by holding six monthly auctions in the forests themselves. Still, one cannot forget the pungent smell of stinkwood furniture that has been well oiled when entering a home or furniture shop.

Our journey takes us through these areas including the dryer inland veld and the lagoons of Knysna and Sedgefield. We pass through villages, towns and cities. On our way we have, for company, baboons, monkeys, lynx, snakes, bush pigs