Bay of Plenty

Once dubbed a 'quaint luxurious sleepy hollow', St Francis Bay has been experiencing a population and economic boom, due in part to its pleasurable attractions and not a little to a Golden Bear that once roamed the area.

Thrusting itself confidently forward for the benefit of unsuspecting mariners, the nineteenth century St Francis lighthouse can be seen from a westerly descent about 100 km from Port Elizabeth. Around the Cape, a tranquil and radiant bay with ample stretches of affluent beach rolls lazily toward a quiet river.

The Portuguese mariners in 1575, who named the Bay after one of the many nautical patron saints, would not have foreseen, from where they stood centuries ago, the resplendent, thatched, black and white mansions or Mediterranean villas that now pervade the area; nor the intricate, man-made, tidal canal system linked to the Kromme River that, in season, plays host to an array of different boats and water machines.

And the well-established commercial and recreational port would not have beckoned their longboats then.

A bay of sporting pleasure

Home to ‘Bruce’s Beauties’, considered one of the world’s best surf breaks, St Francis Bay is described as possessing the whitest, cleanest stretches of beach on the South African coastline. Attracting national and worldwide interest, water sports abound and include surfing, kite boarding, wet bike racing, waterskiing, windsurfing and paddleskiing. Some of the finest surf and rock angling can be found along this stretch and general sporting events are regularly on the calendar.

Trail running, mountain biking, hiking, tennis, squash, bowls and golf complete the package of the Bay’s available sports pleasure and entertainment.

The Kromme and the canals

Navigable to 10 km, the quiet and sedate Kromme River is a playground for sailing enthusiasts and fishermen alike, flowing gently at its mouth into a marvellous network of canals.

Dubbed ‘Little Venice’, and one of the biggest man-made waterways in Africa, this impressive 7 km canal system winds its way peacefully between magnificent white walled thatched houses, each with their own mooring jetty, and is a mere step away to boating, fishing or yachting on the spacious Kromme. Idyllic sunset cruises take visitor or resident alike on an enchanting journey through the fascinating network, distilling a magical and captivating experience.

canal harbour

Port St Francis

In the interests of fishing and tourism, the first privately-owned port in South Africa began construction in 1996 and is today a vibrant and flourishing R250m small harbour for commercial and recreational craft.

Port St Francis provides safe anchorage for the local chokka industry workboats, pleasure vessels and ocean-going yachts. The superbly functional port is surrounded by a developing village of restaurants, shops, estate agents, yacht club, conference centre, private beach, seaside meander trails and residential and self-catering luxury waterfront apartments.

Port St Francis at sunset

The natural gardens of St Francis

A haven for the eco-conscious, the area boasts four nature reserves and falls within The Cape Floral Kingdom – the smallest of the earth’s six kingdoms.

The Cape St Francis Nature Reserve, The Seal Bay Nature Reserve, The Seal Point Nature Reserve and The Irma Booysen Flora Reserve reveal magnificent and exclusive plant life, and many hiking trails exist along the coast and not far inland for nature enthusiasts.

Ground, air and marine species abound and the area is a privileged home for the near-extinct African Black Oystercatcher which has a worldwide population of around only 5 000 birds.

Stamp of the Golden Bear

The great Golden Bear once seen roaming the area was the astounding winner of 18 major golf championships and 105 golf tournaments - the inimitable Jack Nicklaus.

Commissioned to transform an undulating links land of exquisite beauty, Nicklaus produced one of the finest golf courses in the world and was quoted as saying,

‘…..this may be the best course I've ever seen’.

Jack Nicklaus

St Francis Links is situated between gentle, rolling hills with views of the sea. The R2-billion rand investment boasts a magnificent, secure residential golfing estate with several hundred units in the process of development.

Attracting worldwide attention, the development has been hailed as world-class and owes much to the Golden Bear’s course signature and the idyllic proximity of St Francis Bay. It is now rated as one of the finest courses in the country and constantly is among the top venues for weddings, receptions and conferences.

St Francis Links

  

The Links has provided an economic impetus for the overall development of the area and the bay’s luxurious charms have provided it with an attractive menu, creating a synergy that just gets better every year.

In spite of retaining its old-world charm and pristine beauty, the developing bay today would astonish the ancient Portuguese seafarers. And its founder, Leighton Hulett, would no longer look out upon the budding fishing village he brought into being over forty years ago.

It has become a vibrant, bustling environment and tourist mecca that by no stretch of the imagination can any longer be described as ‘quaint’.

Bruce Cooper

STRUGGLING TO GET ONSHORE

STRUGGLING TO GET ONSHORE

A review of the novel Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald

After my first reading (thirty-one years following publication) of Penelope Fitzgerald’s much-lauded 1979 Booker Prize novel, Offshore, I was left wondering what all the fuss was about. The work received wide acclaim, albeit from reviewers, but little academic interest.

It has at its core the relationships between five barge owners, and the families of some of them, moored at Battersea Reach on the Thames. The author would be expected to develop such relationships into an interesting tapestry of personal feeling shaped by events, revealing the characters to their fullest extent and thereby giving the reader an insight into their innermost psychologies. Fitzgerald, however, creates a snapshot, as it were, rather than a complete revelation, thus leaving one feeling the work to be inadequate, wanting and unsatisfying. It could be argued that, in a novel barely two hundred pages long, little opportunity is provided for such development and, on first consideration, there may seem to be a point except for the fact that a novelist, such as Henry James, managed it masterfully. And I use James as a comparison only because several reviewers likened Fitzgerald to Jane Austen – an accolade misplaced and undeserved in the extreme. AS Byatt suggested she was Austen’s ‘nearest heir’ and I am decidedly perplexed (possibly even dumbfounded) why George Eliot might not have been considered suitable for the part. I can only reason there seems to be a desperate proclivity by some reviewers to find in a contemporary writer the genius of some of the great 19th century novelists.

Fitzgerald’s lack of comprehensive characterization weakens the novel immensely and the first half of the book drifts aimlessly to the point of being boringly insubstantial. The characters are presented superficially, and the reader never gets to know them intimately as a result of the author’s inability to allow a full range of reflection or emotion on their part. Consequently the novel cannot develop into a meaningful work and relies on a series of character snapshots to hold it together.

The term ‘snapshot’ is, perhaps, not insignificant as it suggests a style and method not unlike that of cinematography and raises the interesting observation that Fitzgerald’s Offshore is better suited to being developed as a screen play rather than a novel. The sudden and unexpected changes of scene resemble the motion picture, which, it must be said, has never reproduced faithfully, and with telling force, any major literary work because of its reliance on visual perception. Whether or not Fitzgerald was overly influenced by film, I do not know, but the presence of its style and method in Offshore makes it an interesting question.

One cannot escape the fact there is a dull superficiality about the book. The character snapshots (or movie clips if you prefer the idea of motion) presented by Fitzgerald are of mundane, trivial incidents in the lives portrayed - which is not to suggest that a degree of pain and suffering is not present in the representative contextual sampling. But the writer doesn't explore, in a profound way and not even in one or two characters, the range of content in the individual psyches that could reveal personal tragedy. If she had dealt with her subject matter accordingly, Fitzgerald may have evoked a close and percipient response in the reader and provided substance in an otherwise thin narrative. Yet it is almost as if she wants her audience to assume the tragic consequences of her characters’ lives and simply provides a canvas for the reader’s imagination to play on. This is not subtle suggestion, as some of those who rhapsodize about this book may claim, but an inadequacy unable to meticulously examine and reveal the infinitely delicate processes of human thought and emotion. It is, sadly, and one may venture to say, an easy way out.

That said I do not believe Fitzgerald sets out to deceive. She has, rather, simply written a defective novel in an unconvincing style, a style unsuited to the task of aspiring to achieving a major (or even a good) work of fiction. Regrettably, many critics (who should know better) mislead the reading public in describing the work, with extravagant claims, as ‘tight’, ‘compressed’ and ‘...unerring in economic force’. What exactly such specious terms are intended to mean or evoke one can only guess. But it is probable, and I suggest likely, that these critics do not themselves know and use such terms to impress and cloak unfortunate critical inadequacies - inadequacies that will attempt to promote something as a work of genius which, in fact, is second-rate.

I could be proved wrong but I've not seen the work proposed or selected for serious study and surmise that a competent, critical ethos has had the last word on the subject and put the matter to rest.

Bruce Cooper

July 2013

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