Melkbosstrand

History

Melkbosstrand (previously known as Lospers Bay (the surname Losper, a variant of Laubscher, see https://forebears.io/surnames/losper), or Losperd's Bay (meaning, in old Dutch: the Bay of Loose or Lost Horses) is the site of the Battle of Blaauwberg (1806) whereby the Cape ceased to be occupied by French-Batavian troops and became a Colony of the British Crown. The French had occupied the Cape from 1781 to 1783, after a fleet under the flag of celebrated admiral Bailli de Suffren anchored just north of Melkbosstrand. A cannon set on Melkbosstrand foreshore commemorates the battle itself. Numerous shipwrecks, some dating back to the Portuguese Discoverers of the Early Renaissance, are strewn along the coast of Melkbosstrand. Ancient Khoi-San middens and stone-age archeological findings have provided research with numerous artifacts. In terms of Colonial, Dutch vernacular architecture, the area boasts several fine examples. The farmhouse Melkbosch, the first established by the Dutch East India Company outside Cape Town, is still extant albeit in a rather poor condition following a fire. On Melkbos bay itself, much favored by the surfing community for its good swell and warmer currents, stands the [http://diedamhuis.co.za/ Damhuis] cottage (now a beach restaurant), a late 18th-century fisherman house and the last one of its kind in the area (apart from Ons Huisie, at Blouberg Beach, some five kilometres away). In 1961, Melkbosstrand became the end point for the SAT-1 Copper cable between South Africa and Sesimbra, Portugal. In 1992, the cable was replaced by the SAT-2 fiber optic cable. Today, Melkbosstrand is still the landing point for the SAT-3/WASS undersea cable system. It owes much of its present-day infrastructure to two significant South African apartheid…

Most-observed species

• Cape Sparrow

  Passer melanurus (Statius Muller, 1776) · Aves
  3,091
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,049
• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  2,924
• Cape Wagtail

  Motacilla capensis Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  2,894
• Egyptian Goose

  Alopochen aegyptiaca (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,684
• Hartlaub's Gull

  Chroicocephalus hartlaubii (Bruch, 1855) · Aves
  2,619
• Cape Weaver

  Ploceus capensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,574
• Laughing Dove

  Spilopelia senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,564

Most recent

• M 3.5 — 2020-11-16
  47 km S of Saldanha, South Africa
• M 2.7 — 2020-09-27
  12 km W of Paarl, South Africa
• M 2.6 — 2020-09-26
  19 km ESE of Atlantis, South Africa