Port St Johns Stories

Rescuing a Damsel Distress Port St Johns’ Long Beach is the beach on the Ferry Point side of the river, the Eastern side of the Umzimvubu River, and it is so named, because it is a good six  kilometers  long. It stretches from the Umzimvubu river mouth, past Ferry Point, past Porpoise Point, all the way past Agate Terrace, and ends at the headland, which is simply known as the Bluff. It is also wide, with dunes, an indentation in the rock which gets called a cave, some vegetation, a few rocks, which look like black lava; some of the rock formations march from the vegetation down into the sea, creating natural barriers and walls. A natural pool, known as Mermaid’s Pool is hidden within these rocks. There are a lot places that are private and concealed on this beach. On a quiet Sunday morning, a young 12 year old girl, was walking on Long Beach, with her uncle, when she saw what most young girls don’t ever see: a creature writhing on the sand in the shallows. H...

The Selous Scouts in Port St Johns The region known as Transkei in South Africa , gained self rule in 1963; and became a semi autonomous area. Then in 1976, it became an independent homeland. The Republic of Transkei. Inserting Banana before Republic is optional, but recommended. There was nothing independent about Transkei ; it was financially controlled by South Africa , who poured a million Rands into it on a daily basis. And one million was a lot of money then. South African taxpayers (read: whites – blacks didn’t pay much tax, if any), footed this enormous bill every day. Angola , and one in Mozambique , and….)   on the government coffers, the economy didn’t collapse. The Port St Johns aitstrip in the military base on Mount Thesiger Without complaining, after all, who said anything against the President? And it just goes to show how hard working South Africans are – with this enormous drain (actually, one of many, there were other ‘independent homela...

Farming a la Port St Johns Dagga, weed, ganja, dope – Cannabis Sativa and Cannabis Indica are known by many names. It’s a robust annual, can grow up to 4m in height. It doesn’t need much water, and it does like hot weather.   It is a plant of many uses, it was grown in China as far back as 1500 BCE and   was supposedly regularly eaten by the founder of the Persian Sufi sect. The early jeans were made from hemp, and it was grown in America since 1606 and was an important crop throughout the 1800’s. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson farmed the crop. Today it is extremely fashionable (and green) to wear clothes made from organically grown hemp. Medicinally the plant is used as an analgesic and anesthetic. It is used for asthma, arthritis and epilepsy. It cures cancer. It is often used to ease the discomfort of terminally ill cancer patients. As was recorded by one cancer patient, not using cannabis was dying of cancer, using cannabis changed his life t...

                                      Second Beach - The most dangerous beach in the world? The most dangerous beach in the world, Second Beach, Port St Johns, wasn’t always the most dangerous beach in the world. A few years ago, before the phenomenon of shark attacks happened, it was one of the most relaxed, unspoilt beaches in the world. Port St Johns, the little village on the Wild Coast of Transkei, was a place that was on the top of most people’s holiday wish lists. A place that was difficult to get to, but that was relaxed, that when you did get to it, you forgot that the rest of the world existed. Its permanent residents were made up of an eclectic mix of artists, farmers, hippies, at one time the staff of the rebel radio station, Capital 604, at another stage; ex Rhodesian Selous Scouts, who trained up an elite army corps. Second beach, a picture perfect spot: whi...

                                                Our own little war in Port St Johns 28 March 1994, Johannesburg is remembered in South African history as a day of a terrible street battle, when warring factions of ANC supporters and IFP supporters clashed in a terrible fight that claimed lives, maimed healthy young bodies, and brought more shame to South Africa ’s bitter war against itself. The world reacted with horror to the day’s events, and there was global recoil as the bloody scenes were transmitted on television sets across the world. In Port St Johns we knew nothing of what was going on in Johannesburg . We were too busy thinking of our own survival, to tune into the news. We had gotten caught up in the crossfire between the local factions of the ANC and the PAC. It was during what I refer to as the ‘shoot a white days’, pre-elections, T...