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...

                                                              DJ's in the Jungle Advertising in the press had gone on for months – the British Radio Station, Capital 604, was going to open a station in Port St Johns, and broadcast from there, 24 hours a day. It would reach Durban , East London, Johannesburg , and all the latest music would be played by top notch DJ’s from England and the United States . In 1976, Radio 5 (previously L M Radio), was regarded as mod, but they only broadcast in the major centers. Capital 604 would show the SABC what broadcasting was about. The mansion known as the Port Captain’s house on the hill overlooking Port St Johns, was turned into a radio station, the windows were all double glazed, so that the rooms could become studios. Broadcasting equipment was brought in, technical staff we...

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...