Bloubergstrand ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🇿🇦
The beach at Bloubergstrand is a popular location for a classic view of Table Mountain across the bay and is one of the world’s top kitesurf destinations.[citation needed] Robben Island is located 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand.[citation needed]
History
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See also: Battle of Blaauwberg
“Harry die Strandloper”, or Hadah, was the leader of the Goringhaikonas, who were the first people documented to live in Bloubergstrand. Hadah, whose original name was Autshumao, was taken to Java in 1629 by the captain of the ship London to be taught English. Because of his entrusted duties to deliver letters to the British seafaring community, he became the first postmaster in South Africa.
In 1806, the first casualties of the Battle of Blaauwberg drowned when their boat was driven by the large surf into the rocky point at the end of Stadler road and it capsized. The invading British forces went on to defeat the defending Dutch forces and subsequently occupied the whole of the Cape Colony. This was a major first step in the British colonisation that took place throughout the southern African continent.
Previously a National Monument, now a Provincial Heritage Site, “Ons Huisie” (literally translated to Our Small Home) has a long and colourful history in the development of Bloubergstrand. It 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. The exact building date is not known, but a Thomas Bowler made a beautiful pencil drawing of the house in 1853. Hendrik Louis Stadler, the sixth son of Frederick Louis, was the owner of “Ons Huisie” at that time. His sons, Frikkie, Rozier and Johannes, were some of the original founders of Bloubergstrand. The building is now a restaurant of some reputation.[2]
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. When she died “Mollie Lochner Huis” was bequeathed to the South African Teachers’ Union as a holiday home for female teachers but because of the high maintenance cost they had to dispose of it. Over the years it was changed beyond recognition, ultimately demolished in 2004 and a contemporary Westcoast styled guesthouse was developed.[3]
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.
Heather Bam monument, Bloubergstrand
During Apartheid, Bloubergstrand was classified as a “whites-only” beach and suburb as part of the Group Areas Act. The ruling was repealed in 1991 following the abolishing of the Group Areas Act. The imposing Blouberg Heights was built in the 1970s in response to a “white housing crisis” in racially segregated Cape Town. In the 1970s the National Party initiated several planning interventions, including the suspension of the city’s zoning rules with regards to building height for developers willing to build housing in white