Melkbosstrand
Melkbosstrand
Melkbos | ||
|---|---|---|
PO box 7437 | ||
| Area code | 021 | |
Melkbosstrand (Afrikaans for "Milkbush beach") is a coastal town located on the South West Coast of South Africa, 30 km north of Cape Town. It forms part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, the municipality governing Cape Town and its greater metropolitan area.
Named after the species of Euphorbiaceae bushes which grow on the dunes and give off a milky latexlike substance, it is commonly referred to simply as Melkbos. The town and its 7 kilometre stretch of white sand beach is situated on the Atlantic coast with the Blouberg mountain to the east. The beach is popular with surfers.[citation needed] It is one of the landing points for the South Africa-Far East, South Atlantic/West Africa and Equinao submarine cable systems.
Melkbosstrand is along the Blaauwberg region of the
History
Melkbosstrand (previously known as Losperd's Bay) (meaning, in old Dutch: the Bay of Lost Horses) is the site of the
Ancient
In terms of Colonial, Dutch vernacular architecture, the area boasts several fine examples. The farmhouse Melkbosch, the first established by the
In 1961, Melkbosstrand became the end point for the SAT-1 Copper cable between South Africa and
It owes much of its present-day infrastructure to two significant South African apartheid government developments in the late seventies. The first,
Although ADE was in the industrial park of Atlantis, some 50 km north of Cape Town, subsidised housing was established in Melkbosstrand to help attract and retain the many German, British, and even South African, engineers, managers, and technicians. These houses, both for Koeberg and ADE, have long since been sold off to the public and form an interesting housing development with paved lanes, quaint housing, a club and a library, not un-reminiscent of the famed British series The Prisoner.
Melkbos features in Deon Meyer's best-selling crime novel 7 Days (7 Dae in Afrikaans original) (2012) as the place where mad sniper, cop-killer, Solomon buys spray paint for camouflage.
Economy, culture and sport
For many years Melkbosstrand has been called the "rich man's town" by its neighbouring suburbs and towns, such as Atlantis and Table View.[citation needed] This labelling remark is probably because Melkbosstrand is home to a host of South African celebrities (retired rugby players, actors, writers, visiting members of the House of Lords), which is mainly due to its location and its views of Table Mountain. International best-selling novelist Deon Meyer was a long time resident of Melkbosstrand as well as South-African French philosopher Philippe-Joseph Salazar.
Wild life on Melkbos beaches has always been abundant: "The most unusual scene," writes Lawrence G. Green in South African Beachcomber,[9] " came about when greedy seals chased thousands upon thousands of maasbankers into rocky pools on the coast to the north of Melkbosch Strand. Everyone in that village turned out with baskets, caught the fish by the hundred and carried them home alive". Crayfish or Cape lobster is plentiful although fishing is strictly regulated. Fish braais (barbecues) remain a favourite pastime among locals.
References
- ^ "Councillors Online". City of Cape Town. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
- ^ a b c d "Main Place Melkbosstrand". Census 2011.
- ^ "BLAAUWBERG, Cape Town". www.sa-venues.com. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
- ^ Military History Journal (South African Military History Society) Vol 13 No 4 - Dec 2005
- ^ Andrew Smith, The French Period at the Cape, 1781-1783, Military History Journal Vol 5 No 3, June 1981
- ^ See Lawrence G. Green, the great raconteur of the Cape: So Few Are Free, Cape Town: Howard B. Timmins, 1946, I, 4.
- ^ Alan G. Morris, "Trauma and Violence in the Later Stone Age in Southern Africa", June 2012, Vol. 102, No. 6 SAMJ
- ^ "History of Blaauwberg, Blouberg, Cape Town, South Africa | Blaauwberg, Blouberg, Cape Town History". www.blaauwberg.net.
- ^ Lawrence G. Green, South African Beachcomber, Cape Town, Howard Timmins, 1958, p. 11.
