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Galjoen, Snoek in season and Cape Salmon. The sea food replaced meat which was
unobtainable locally and we lived virtually on what we had harvested from the sea.

“The water situation was initially even more difficult than the lack of electrical

lighting. We were dependant for water on rainwater-tanks which often rusted and let us

down, and fresh water from a spring at the Kom. This had to be fetched daily and
before we were allowed to go out and play, all the children armed with buckets and

jugs, first after breakfast and again after lunch, carried water until the zinc baths in the
kitchen and yard had been filled.”

In her reference to the aftermath of the wrecking of the cargo ships, the Maori and

Umhlali, Ann describes how as children with time on their hands and a veritable

paradise in which to go treasure hunting, their beachcombing went on for months. “We
dug up cases of soap, candles, tinned pea soup and herring in tomato sauce. Our

pantry was filled for many months and in the end we had no less than 1200 candles

stored in the loft. Other items included bolts of material, hair ribbons, hairbrushes,
handsewn red leather cricket balls, countless golf balls, tennis racquets and croquet

mallets.

“Between 1910 and 1920, other families began to filter in and spend holidays here on
a regular basis. As our gang grew, our activities increased. We swam, fished, walked

and climbed, went miles into the veldt after sour figs, played cricket and staged

concerts. But the most interesting and entertaining character in the group at that time
was a lad called Willy Du Bedat, who moved into Kommetjie with his parents before

the 1914 war and became the heart throb of all the girls in a very short time. He spoke
English such as we had never heard spoken in our lives, was sophisticated by our

standards, danced well, and was good at making up funny verses relating to small
happenings in our lives. His mother had been an actress on the English stage and

claimed to be half English / half Spanish. She was a large, fiery, and very commanding

woman, married to an elderly, silver haired, very aristocratic man, who was quiet