Any of the members knowing Still Bay?

From childhood my family went to Still Bay on Holiday,   Both my grandfathers owned homes in Still Bay - My grandfather De Jager in fact built the first double story home in the town.   My Saayman grandfather owned the third house from the fishing harbor - which he sold to his stepsister Maggie Pauw - the grandmother of the Snyman Springboks of the 1970's.

What I am talking about was when there were no shops in Still Bay in the 1910's and people would use ox wagons to move to Still bay for December and January taking with them chickens to provide eggs and cows to be milked as well as a sheep to be slaughtered for braai purposes.

I can remember seeing the famous heart surgeon Chris Barnard when he was an unknown - he was holidaying regularly there every year.

Be it as it may I had a short holiday with my parents in 1963 and my father came home mumbling about people being  nuts.   I asked him about it and he said an agent offered him 5 building sites in what was called Platbos - my reaction was buy the bloody things and my father's response was that nobody would ever build homes there.

Needless to say my father was wrong and Still B ay developed faster than anybody would predict.    It struck me hard when visiting my friend Frans Malherbe - the father of the Springbok - last week when he told me that the house on the Still Bay West beach front was sold for R22 million.   

Obviously I still hanker back to Still Bay of the 1950's when we as naughty children terrorized the people and did things that would land a youngster in jail nowadays.                 

Maaik, I miss the place dearly....first on the agenda if I win the Lotto, buy my dad's house back...Decembers and Easter are too busy, but the rest of the year is Hea ven. 

It will have to be a multiple take-over so about R30 million would be necessary.   What I do want to ask is where was your father's home?     

It's not a ocean or river view...nothing fancy...a c rescent across the road from the Golf course and rugby field...about 2km feom the harbor...should still be less than 5 million...nice big house with lotsa big rooms.

Fascinating area. Got the Blombos cave there South of Jongensfontuin with traces of hunter gatherers from 10s of thousands of years ago.Apparently there's a shell landfill from 1000BC from Khoi ancestors. 

Moonrover

You are missing the most obvious historical issue.   On the Still Bay West beach front the Khoi people an estimated 5 000 years ago  used heavy stones put in the see to trap fish.   When the tide came in the fish would come with it - but get trapped in the resultant pools when the tide went out.

How effective was it?   I saw an about 30 kg fish being trapped that way when I was a small kid.   Since then the area was over-fished - but the stones remain and can be seen when the tide is low.  

Blombos is actually to the west of Jongensfontein.    An uncle of mine had a farm there and there were some huts on the coast that could only be reached by using jeeps - no real roads,  Some really famous people used to go and hide there from time to time.   My father went with some friends once and they stayed in one of the huts.   After being there for four days they came back and my father wanted to see my mother at the hospital where she was working.  She gave him one look at chased him away and told him to go and wash and shave himself before being seen in a civilized environment.

If you want to buy a farm there nowadays you have to be very rich.

By the way I also have Khoi ancestors through Pieternella Meerhof  who was married to the first Saayman who came to South Africa.   Her mother was known as Eva of the Goringhaikona  nowadays called Koroka I believe.        

visvywers

Draad 

The buyers of the R22 million house were apparently 3 of the ultra-rich staying in Stellenbosch.  It is very difficult to find homes to buy in Still Bay - but I think the homes in the area you refer to will probably be in the market for between  R3,5 million and R4,5 million.  

Even in Riversdale there is a problem as to home sales.   The last extension of the town was approved in the 1980's and there are only about 20 empty housing sites in that area left.   A price of an empty site is now circa R1,1 million and house prices are going up rapidly.   I bought my 3 bedroom house with a separate flat in 2015 for R910 000.   At this stage I can sell it for R2,6 to R2,8 million.   

The estate agents have a list of about 200 customers waiting to buy homes in Riversdale.   There is a problem though - most of the potential buyers have to sell their existing homes and they  struggle to do so and to buy in Riversdale would mean they have to get loans of over a million Rand to buy.      

 Snarkhole...there's a nice point break too.

Mike, my dad sold 16 years ago. 10 years ago, it sold for twoce as much...would probably have more doubled again by now.