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October 31, 2004
Childhood revisited?
This block of large flats, built in the 1930's, was where the monk spent the first eighteen or so months on this planet. Situated near the top of Buitenkant Street in Cape Town, it was then, and is even more so now, a "sought after residence"! The Monk's Grandparents held the lease on Number 2, the right hand side ground floor verandah in the picture. To say that I was surprised to find it still standing and in such good repair some 58 years later is a complement to both its architect and to the original builders.
One of the many childhood homes of the Monk, rediscovered in his perambulations in SA
Driving on from Cape Town along the "Garden Route", one passes the now booming centre of Mossel Bay, actually the site of an attempted Portugese settlement in 1510 - 20 (abandoned in favour of Lourenco Marques [now Maputo]) and now the centre of offshore oil and gas production in South Africa. About 30 miles further East is the village of Little Brak River and five miles further is the town of Great Brak River. It was here that my maternal Grandparents had their home (my Grandmother's favourite of the many she and my Grandfather shared in a rather nomadic life), and it was here that the Monk was sent as a very small boy to live while his parents struggled to establish a home for themselves. It is a place of magical memories which came flooding back when I found the house (built around 1896) still standing, although now minus its wide verandah on the upper floor.
On the banks of the Great Brak River, this house has many magical memories. It is now a Guest House and Restuarant.
A journey back in time and a real ride down the old Memory Lane!
Posted by The Gray Monk at October 31, 2004 09:30 AM