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Saturday, December 14, 2013

Occupants a long time ago

Natures Valley is situated in the Tjitsikamma National park and is the only village in South Africa that is inside a national park. This wonderful gem that encompasses most of natures fauna and flora and nestles next to the Groot river has an interesting and colourful history.

Walking along the coastline towards Storms river you come across caves hewed out of the stone face by nature and occupied by man a million years ago.
These "strand lopers" had a diet of mainly crustations and lived mainly from the proceeds of the sea. As can be gauged by the layers of mussel shells the population numbers dwindled as they ate toxic mussels and rebounded when the mussel toxicity passed.
It is not known whether they died of poisonous food or whether they were driven off by hostile tribes but they were displaced by the San people who in turn were displaced by the Khoi.



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