Thirteen Formative Years |
 HOLIDAYS – Transkei: During the summer of 1957-58, we holidayed at Umngazi Mouth. This photograph was taken by Bobby Roberts in December 1957, and shows – from left to right, walking down a path towards some of the hotel’s cottages (or rondavels) – Linda (aged four), Charlie (six), and Stuart (with the red shirt, who was 11 years old at the time). As Bobby recorded in his Memoirs, “The Umngazi river, like many in that part of Africa, does not flow into the sea unobstructed. Sandbanks form a lagoon of warm salt water out of the main stream where children can safely bathe in water that is neither too deep nor subject to strong currents. Nor is there any danger from sharks.” Our paternal grandmother, Olive Roberts, was visiting us in South Africa at the time – the only grandparent to do so during the 13 years we lived there – and she, Stuart, and I slept in a cottage together. We didn’t know it at the time, of course, but our Umngazi Mouth holiday was, in fact, our last seaside family holiday in South Africa. |