Durban - The picture today is from a postcard of eMdloti Beach, probably taken in the 1980s. The beach’s natural rock enclosure offering a protected bathing environment has made it popular with young families for generations of Durbanites, because it’s a safe area for children to swim.
Journalist Frank Chemaly remembers family “expeditions” to “eMdloti” growing up in Hillcrest in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
“It was Mom, Dad, us kids and usually a couple of friends, and a Labrador called Rupert all piled into dad’s Peugeot station wagon along with chairs and umbrellas and picnic baskets and cooler boxes, and buckets and spades and fishing rods and balls and bats and nets.
“I’m sure you would find the kitchen sink in there if you looked hard enough,” he said.
It was all planned with military precision.
“Everything was ready to go on Saturday night. As soon as Mom got back from church – Dad always took us to early mass so we could pack the car – we would pile in and hit the road. It was quite a journey back then, made easier when the N2 freeway was extended to eMdloti, which I think was in the late 70s.”
The beach is still popular today as Shelley Kjonstad’s picture taken this week shows.
The Independent on Saturday