The Distant Past...
Ballots Bay, a tiny haven for modern anglers & nature lovers, has been home to people who have taken shelter from the winds and the ocean, and enjoyed the rich harvest of sea, since prehistoric times. A typical drowned valley, Ballots Bay is a miniature example of the vertical geological move - ments since past geological times which resulted in the rugged coastline with caves which formed ternporary homes for stone age man, strandlopers and bushmen who lived on the surrounding hills. The moved with the seasons from the green belt below the Outeniqua mountains to the lush coastal plains.
It is only some 15 000 years since the last ice age when the sea was as much as 80 kilometres further away from the present coast line. The beach was then a plain where huge herds of game - quaggas, springbok, ostriches, wildebeest and hartebeest to name some . ranged freely Many chose to live on the hills for the security it gave them, and because from there they had a wonderful vantage over their rich hunting grounds. On the hills at Wolf Island & Zuurvlakte there are some natural depressions where wild pig must have wallowed, turning this into watering holes for the game abundant at that time. These were natural places for the people to gather, to hunt, to eat or to sit about making their tools and weapons. Embedded in clay, and surrounding the pans, extraordinarily rich middens of the shells of molluscs used as a staple source of protetn and discarded by these early inhabitants of the area, have been found. Work by the Department of Archeology of the University of Stellenbosch shows that the stone ar - tifacts found there date back from 100 to 200 thousand years ago. The finds show continuous habitation since that period as the articles are representative of the developing range of hand axes from simple to sophisticated.
BALLOTS BAY
The Need For Conservation.
Our predecessors in this beautiful part of South Africa, known as the Garden Route, have left us with a despicable track record as far as appreciation of God's creation is concerned. Not even 200 years ago, the area between the Outeniqua & Tsitsikamma mountains and the Indian Ocean on the other, was a sea of almost impenetrable indigenous trees. That which had taken centuries to reach maturity was felled and dragged to the coast, obliterating saplings and undergrowth in its path. Ships, railway sleepers and firewood were the destiny of these majestic plants.
We read of the endless herds of game that roamed in the area norht & east of Cape Town and of how wagonloads of these creatures were truimphantly brought to Cape Town - dead. Elephants abounded in the forest around present-day Knysna (translated by some, from the Koi-Koi, as There is wood) but hunted relentlessly, ever after ivory, meat, with never a thought that within a brief space of time what was seemingly an endless world would come to an end. Too late did the authorities and individuals like De Vasselot try to stem the destruction resulting from man's insatiable greed and selfishness, leacinga dearth of game and indigenousvegetation. Instead, we have exotic trees now growing here; more suitable to man because of their rapid growth and subsequent quicker utilization as furniture and timber.
Nor did the destruction end with the actions of the commercially minded, as nature lovers in their hundreds pour into the Southern Cape, lining the pockets of developers and creating places which, now mockingly, bear names like Wilderness, Sedgefield & Nature's Valley.
Money playsa key role in as many people's lives - not that it is wrong to make money in order to ensure the prosperity of our land and it's inhabitants, but a balance needs to be maintained.
Town - and city dwellers of ten express a need to get away from it all and head for naturally beautiful areas. To accommodate them, magnificent hotels & resorts are erected, ironically destroyng in the process much of what it is that people want to see and experience. Tourists visit the Garden Route expecting to experience the origin of that name. Lately much is being said and written about the environment and conservation, but how much is actually being done? Where can a genuine nature- lover go in the George area to commune with na - hire? Sadly many lovely drives and destinations within a comfortable radius of central George have been spoilt by thoughtless people who don't merely get away from it all, but take it with them and leave it there: as witness we have the appalling mess of discarded bottles, plastic bags, builders nibble & other rubbish as shocking evidence that man has visited a shady forest glade or tinkling stream. Much of what was beautiful has become an extension of the rubbish dump. Areas of land have, sometimes unnecessarily, been put under the plough to grow crops, destroying ill the process hectares of possibly irreplaceable fynbos, and often driving away birds and animals.
By contrast, there still exists the little known area of Ballots Bay. Only a few fisherman frequent this area, in addition to the occasional day visitor. This often includes the dumper of motor wrecks & their accessories, or the lorry driver who shovels tons of beach stones onto his vehicle, only to discover the load is too great to reach the top of the incline and who accordingly tips out half of it hundreds of metres from where it belongs.
Ballots Bay and its immediate environs is a nature- lover's dream. From the high point overlooking the surrounding area, one can see for kilometres along the coast - beyond Wilderness, Gericke's Point & Buffelsbaai to the east, and past Herold's Bay in thewest. If the season is right, whales and dolphins may be seen in the sea. Immediately surrounding the observer is an area of fynbos, unfortunately incomplete as one part is under peas while another has been taken over byweeds since being ploughed up. Further up the valley. one is treated to a panorama of indigenous trees, beyond which is the railway line bearing the famous Outeniqua ChooTjoe on the section between Victoria Bay and George. In the air and on the ground are the oc casiona Knysna loerie & Stanley bustard, both of which are comparitively shy birds which need ideal conditions of peace and quiet to breed and ensure the continuation of their species.
Not far from where the Meulen river flows into the sea, - at the end of its meandering path between kloof and tree, one can hear the songs of innumerable birds while the cliff face is active with dassie and bird life. Of historical interest and value is the role played by Ds. Ballot in this valley.
Already however, man is encroaching on this unspoilt Eden place, as the piles of rubbish alongside the road testify. On the other hand, this area could be effectivelyused for education and environmental studies. It is comfortably close to George, on a good gravel road, providing easy access for adults and school children alike. Few places exist in the George area where one can take a group of children to teach them about nature in practice and where they can learn the value of conserving something they can experience for themselves. However, somebody has to take responsibility for maintenance and conservation.
This area, if success in kecping out the pollutors is to be achieved, must be patrolled regularly and subject to controlled access. We have a fine piece of what George direly needs, just waiting to be utilised constructively. Let's support honest efforts to conserve and control the area so that Ballots Bay maybethepride of the Garden Route and a monoment to forward-thinking individuals who want to pass on a legacyofconservation to theirdecendants. Education of atlpeople, from deprived and affluent backgrounds, is essential in the achievement of this goal.
GARETH ZIMMERMAN.
1990.
