Steemit Blockchain Memory Project - Seaside holiday Memoirs

I am so looking forward to sharing my memories here in @ericvancewalton’s Steemit Blockchain Memory Project, as our memories tend to fade and eventually die and photos as well as letters get lost (I’m from the era when letter writing was still done)! All those memories will now be here on the blockchain forever for my children’s children and so forth!
I really enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane recently with @growpro’s #iwasakid When I was a kid - The swinging 60s so dug a little further when I saw @ericvancewalton’s #BlockchainMemoryProject challenge!
I will start with where I came from and scattered holiday memories from when I was a child to when I had my own children.

I was born in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, South Africa on 24 May 1953...ouch that's a long time ago ; the only girl with 4 brothers.
I was tiny here, Dad and my aunt trying to stoke a little fire; we were taking my aunt back to Cape Town where she worked at the time. Mom says some of these photos were taken with their trusted old Kodak box Camera; this one was a tiny snap, did not scan too badly :)

We started going on camping trips with Mom's cousin and his family, and this became an annual get together.
My two youngest brothers were not born yet, Etienne & Marius the two on the right, I'm sitting second from left.

Despite many hardships, Mom & Dad managed to take us on a three week annual winter holiday by the sea every year. They were keen anglers and winter is the best time for fishing here in sunny South Africa, even Mom used to fish.
The menfolk studied tactics, bait, tides and the moon phases, but Mom would just casually stroll down to the rocks and be the first one to hook a fish.
Here is a photo of Mom Lily around the age of 70 when she caught her last fish, not being too steady from then on.

But back to when I was a child.
Our favourite destination used to be a place called Storm's River Mouth, in the Tsitsikama National Park, a protected area along the Garden Route in the Eastern Cape. This is the start of one of the most popular hikes in South Africa, the 5 day Otter Trail Wonderful to think we walked along this coastline as children, looking for little bays to swim and the adults for fishing spots. Some of the footpaths were quite treacherous with the sea way down below.
We took our children there in the mid 80s, photos taken then.
Storms River Bridge as well as the suspension bridge along the Otter Trail

More dramatic image of the suspension bridge

We used to feast on fish and shellfish the whole holiday - Mom and aunty Maggy used to prepare the fish; fried in batter, grilled over the coals, smoked, even dried (like jerky) and pickled, so we took some of those delights home with us to remind us of the ocean.
Mom's cousin with his bounty.

Mom baked potbread in the old coal stove, and we would sit around the old coal stove or fire outside at night; our cheeks glistening with farm butter after feasting on the hot bread and silvery delights from the ocean!
We sometimes camped in tents and other times stayed in the log cabins.
We had a wonderful tiny lady who worked for us and she would come with us each year, even though she swore each time that she was not going to come next year, as the mermaids with their long tails wanted to pull her into the deep blue sea at night. But come next year, and she'd arrive at our house with her little suitcase packed to the brim with holiday outfits. She was the dearest person, she would warm her hands by the fire and lovingly rub our cold feet with those hands!
It was the years of the horrendous Apartheid, something I could never understand as Mom & Dad taught love and respect for everyone.
I still remember Dad would give Truitjie a lift home, but always had to make sure he was not alone with her in the car; they both could have been arrested! So one of us always went along, and the first time I saw where this dear little woman lived, my heart just sank! Apartheid was horrendous, and we still bear that legacy today and will for a long time!
But back to Storms River Mouth, the public beach toilet in those days was a pit latrine (long drop) that was perched on high rocks, a long walk from the beach with the sea rushing below you. Terrible to think that this type of ablution is still in use today, but certainly not along the coastline any longer, more in rural and wilderness areas I would imagine! Because of the long walk there, we tried not to use it too often!
We had wondrous holidays there, took our children back to that region in the mid 80s, but only went to Storms River Mouth for a day visit, we camped just outside Plettenberg Bay.
Our two sons Dean & Warren outside our camper. Boy, was that a lot to pack, nowadays it's much easier to go to timeshare resorts, but camping was an adventure for the boys, and it did remind me of my awesome childhood days.

Original Content by @lizelle
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!steemitworldmap -34.022698 lat 23.898024 long Storms River Mouth Rest Camp, Eastern Cape d3scr