Loadshedding time and we decided to enjoy breakfast in Blouberg. We took the scenic road parking almost on the Beach and enjoyed the fresh sea air while trailing along the sea with the ever-present Table Mountain in the background.
A lot of people had the same idea on that Tuesday morning and we side stepped our last restaurant deciding to look for a new one.
Ons Huisie greeted us with friendly staff and a spectacular sea view with a cross on the rocks.
In memory of Heather Bam, drowned, 15 December 1911.
As the history geeks we are, we tried to find out more about Heather Bam. This is not a story in the history books that we knew about. There are a lot of information on Bloubergstand, a very historical town.
“Ons Huisie” is a Provincial Heritage Site which was the first dwelling of Frederick Louis Stadler. (Hence Stadler Road is the original street.) Shortly after the Battle of Blouberg in 1806, he became owner of almost all the farm property that is now known as Bloubergstrand.
From the 1940s a well-known writer of illustrated Afrikaans children’s books, Helena ‘Mollie’ Lochner, lived at the end of Stadler Road in “Die Groot Withuis” or the Lochner House, on the southernmost tip of the promontory. Her ashes are buried under the front step of the house.
The large wooden cross out on the promontory rocks was erected in memory of Heather Bam who lived in the same house before Mollie and who drowned off the point in 1911.
There were not a lot of information available about Heather Bam, just that she had drowned. Did she go for a swim and the treacherous sea current swept her away to the depths of the deep blue? Did a wave swept her feet from under her and the sea pulled her in? Did somebody tried to help her but because of the many rocks weren’t able to reach her? So many questions in this sad reality.
Rest in peace Heather.
For More information on Bloubergstrand click here.
Cornelia 