Saturday, December 24, 2011

Shark River lily

The little stream that flows through Happy Valley towards Humewood Beach is actually known as the Shark River and used to be one of early Port Elizabeth's main water sources.  The name have absolutely nothing to do with sharks though.  Even in the early years the little stream never reached the sea and disappeared into the sand on the beach.  In Dutch (and Afrikaans for that matter) the term used to describe the river sinking away into the sand is "sak" and they called it the Sakrivier.  The British misunderstood the word used by the Dutch thinking it was called the Shark River and hence the name which stuck.  

1 comment:

  1. That's really interesting. Often wondered how it got it's name. Lovely photo too. Have a lovely Christmas and thank you for sharing your gorgeous photos.

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