THE HISTORY
Negotiations commenced in 2001, and the dream was realized in 2003 – Kanon Private Nature Reserve. As the reserve is part of the Gouritz Eastern Coastal Corridor, it plays a major role in the conservation of this vital stretch of coastline, which has been tended and cosseted by members of the Kanon community for the past 60 years.
There is a story that is Cape Vacca.
It begins long before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1488; The Story of Man – so we are now being told – in the very beginning, is to be found in Mossel Bay. Archeological evidence shows that the Khoekhoen and the San are people of great antiquity – indeed the San have the oldest genetic stock of contemporary humanity.
Archaeologists believe that the first intertidal fish traps or vyvers may have been built during the later Stone Age between 7000 and 3 300 years ago. The low stone barriers were erected in the intertidal zones of sheltered rocky bays and can still be seen at various locations along the Cape coastline. The stone walls were packed in such a way that when the fish were swept into the bay at high tide they would be trapped in the enclosures when the tide receded. Researchers have suggested that these particular traps were built by the Khoekhoen when they first arrived in the area some 2000 years ago.
Shell middens dot the entire length of South Africa’s 3 000 kilometer coastline. They are the waste dumps of early humans and as such, they are a record of the exploitation of marine life by hunter-gatherers (The San) and herders (Khoekhoen) during the last 12 000 years of the later Stone Age.
From research done on the Tsitsikamma coast, it is clear that people utilized shellfish as a food resource in South Africa from about 120,000 years ago. However, most middens that accumulated during the Middle Stone Age were submerged when melting ice sheets caused a rise in the sea level during the last glacial-interglacial cycle between 120,000 and 12,000 years ago.
Some remaining middle Stone Age middens have been found in caves along the coast where they were protected. Shell middens can be distinguished from natural accumulations of marine shells by the presence of artifacts and the bones of animals eaten by latest Stone Age people. Many middens include the remains of birds, fish, crabs, crayfish and marine mammals such as seals, dolphins and even whales. Midden’s near sandy shores contained a large percentage of white mussels shells whereas those found along rocky beaches are more varied and incorporate the shells of abalone, Periwinkles, alikreukel and limpets.
It is likely that women collected the shellfish probably at low tide. Large quantities of shellfish may have been dried or smoked for later consumption. Sometimes shells were used to make adornments and tools. Buttons and beads were made of alikreukel which has a mother of pearl sheen and pendants were created from cone shells. White mussel shells were often sharpened along their edges and used as scrapers.
A note on nomenclature
Jan van Riebeek wrote in his diary of the indigenous hunter gatherers referring to them as the Sonqua. The word Sonqua is sinonemous with San, the Cape’s hunter gatherers.
Khoekhoen has at its roots Quena and the more modern version, Khoina, referring to The Cape herders. The name Khoehque is so similar that it indicates that the Khoi-Khoi people may originally have been known as the people of The Koehque.
Peel back to present…
Our story touches that of these indigenous peoples, and we pay homage with Khoekhoen Beach Lodge, our luxury tented camp situated immediately behind the low dune line, directly in front of the fish traps remains from the Khoekhoen.
Peel back to present…
The first Diaz sighting along the East Coast.
Had you stood here on the first two days of February 1488 you may have seen a Portuguese caravel sailing slowly eastwards Bartholomeu Diaz, having unknowingly rounded the Cape of storms, initially sailed northwards. He sighted land “near the mouth of the Goutitz river”. In so doing he became the first navigator from the northern hemisphere to sight the East Coast of southern Africa. Sailing further eastwards he landed at Sau Bras: Mossel Bay on 3rd February 1488.
The entire coastline of this epic sighting is visible from the promontory the sight of the Padros cross erected next to Periwinkel. Perwinkel stands on the edge of discovery. It is wild, and so poignantly testament to the voyages of discovery that brought European man the African shores.
The first contact between European seafarers and Khoekhoen herdsmen ended in tragedy.
When Bartolomeu Dias reached Mossel Bay (which he named Sao Bras) his sailors went ashore to replenish their freshwater tanks. But watching the strange ship anchored in the Bay – the very first to be seen in these waters – was a group of Khoekoen men who must surely have been very perplexed by what they saw when the Portuguese sailors dressed in strange clothing came ashore. The startled herdsmen first retreated and then as the men from the sea drew closer they ran away.
Soon the Koekhoen regained their composure and returned to the beach only to see the sailors filling containers from a stream that flowed from a nearby fountain to the beach. The sailors (unaware of respect protocol) helped themselves to the water which they saw as a free resource in an unoccupied land. The herders were offended by this behavior and began pelting the Portuguese sailors with stones. Diaz retaliated by drawing his crossbow killing one man. The Khoekhoen retreated to a safe distance and the men from the sea hastily completed filling their containers and withdrew from the beach to continue their voyage of discovery.
When Vasco da Gama visited Sao Bras some ten years later in December 1497 he was more circumspect than Diaz had been. As he was approached by a band of about 90 Khoekoen men he held out his hand in friendship and offered the curious but not unfriendly men small bells and red caps as a token of peace. In return the Khoekhoen gave them some of the ivory bracelets they wore on their arms.
At their next meeting a day or two later the Khoekhoen brought livestock and the first trade deal was struck between the Portuguese and indigenous herders. The Khoekhoen continued to trade with European seafarers for the next 165 years bartering their cattle for iron, copper and brass as well as various other items of curiosity. The Khoekhoen remaind suspicious of the visiting sailors intentions and in turn the seafarers were both wary and contemptuous of the diffident Cape herders.
It is known that Vaca is the early Portuguese word for cows. And it is very probable that the early mariners traded in the bay. Survey maps as late as the mid 19th century still showed the Kanon’s bay as Vleeschsbaai. It is only recently as from 1870 onwards that the names have been interchanged and that the current name of Fish Bay has been in use.
If cattle were to be found grazing on the shores of the bay then grassed areas must have been present and thus grass areas available for camping habitation. There is certainly historical evidence of the early visitors trading all along this coastline with the Khoi and San and cattle being the main item of trade.
