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| Ocean Park Guest House under construction 2007 |
Our guest house is situated in
one of the most beautiful towns in South Africa. However it seems that it is
also quite the unknown little gem too. So Ocean Park Guest House has decided to
make accommodation to share a bit of the town’s history with you, and some of
its most famous events. It may not be on the scale of the big cities, but in
its own way our quaint town of Umkomaas has such a flavourful past that it has contributed
to the establishment of a fiercely loyal local community, one that holds a
great sense of love for the town and its surroundings. We introduce to you our
town, Umkomaas, love it like a local, we know you will.
In 1861 a harbour was built on
the KZN South Coast primarily as a place to ship the local harvests of sugar;
with all the activity surrounding the harbor, the town of Umkomaas formed
around it. The local people named the river uMkhomazi, which means “The Place
of Cow Whales” because of the large number of whales that used the shallow
estuary as a place to give birth to their calves. Unfortunately with the
development of the ports in Durban and Port Shepstone, the Umkomaas harbor fell
into disuse, but the town itself, as you can see, continued unhindered.
Named ‘South Barrow’ until 1924, the
river itself was literally teeming with wildlife, including hippos and
crocodiles well up until the mid-1860s when attempts to establish a harbor in
the river mouth began.
In the 1860s a Mr. Greenacre
established a general dealer store and small inn on the hill overlooking the
uMakhosi River in order to capitalize (as did his family years later in West
Street Durban) on the passing trade.
At the age of 17 (around 1870),
Sir Cecil John Rhodes who was diagnosed with a lung disease, possibly
consumption, and was sent to stay with his brother, Herbert Rhodes who was
attempting to farm cotton in the Umkomaas Valley. (The land was later
considered unsuitable for cotton farming, and the farming venture failed.)
Literary reference to the
Umkomaas river valley is found in an early chapter of Alan Paton's 1948 novel
Cry, The Beloved Country. “From Ixopo the toy train climbs up into
other hills, the green rolling hills of Lufafa, Eastwolds, Donnybrook. From
Donnybrook the broad-gauge runs to the great valley of the Umkomaas.”
We all know that Umkomaas is most
renowned for the superb diving opportunities created by the Aliwal Shoal, 4 kilometers
off Umkomaas. Aliwal shoal is named after the sailing ship ‘Alawal’ that was
almost wrecked in 1849 during a storm. Aliwal shoal is about 1,5km long and 1km
wid. It’s a fossilized sand dune of soft and hard coral and sponges, which
hosts an astounding variety of marine life, most notably the Ragged Tooth
Shark. Aliwal shoal also sports few
adventurous wreck dives on the 'Produce' and the 'Nebo' and great reef drift
dives. The local dive scene is not only
famous for these but also baited open water shark dives where divers can get up
close and personal with Tiger sharks, Black Tips and Bull Sharks - locally know
as Zambezi Sharks, which are abundant in
the area.
Umkomaas is also honored by the
South African Navy with the naming of a mine countermeasure vessel being named
after it, the SAS Umkomaas.
Rich with history, and a future
filled with interesting activities, Ocean Park Guest House looks forward to
sharing our beautiful town with you.
Bookings can be made online or by
emailing our guest house manager, Lana on info@oceanpark.co.za.
