MATOPOS

We were stationed at Matopas from 1st May 1967 to 31st December 1970, so I was just 4 years old when we started there. Mum started teaching me in 1969 via correspondence, and every morning we would listen to our teacher give a lesson on the radio and then Mum would go through it with us and we would have to send our work in weekly. We used to take lessons in a little stone gazebo that had a bougainvillea growing over it, by the pool. (Our house has since burnt down and has been re-built). The only story I remember of Mum teaching me, was being pulled over the gazebo wall as there was a snake hanging from the bougainvillea. The maid, “Maggie”, thought that Mum was murdering me – as she came running out the house, which was quite a feat, as she was rather large, to investigate what was happening.
Mum used to call Karen and me “rock rabbits”, as we used to love climbing the rocks. Our house was situated up against the rocks and had a view of Pomangwe, a huge granite rock in front of us. We used to love climbing the rocks following the pipeline at 5.00pm to go and meet Dad as he finished work. I believe that Mark Williams and I got stuck in a crevice of rocks and Dad had to get us out by rope. There was a gap in some rocks behind the tourist office which led to the tennis courts. We used brace ourselves to run through to get to the tennis courts and swings, as there was a monitor lizard that lived in the crack and he used to hiss at us, which terrified our little souls. As you can see from the pictures we were wee little girls.

One of our favourite past time – fishing
From where the rest camp and staff houses where, there was a steep hill down to Maleme Dam, and I remember the parks tractor going down the hill and his brakes failed him and he went straight into the dam. I was always scared going down in a vehicle after that. Dad also used to hold my arms and drop me down the side of the dam wall to measure the height of the water.
Dad was the responsible to the building of Fish Eagle and Black Eagle Lodges which has a beautiful view over the spillway, which was a crevice filled with huge granite boulders. Whilst hammering a nail in the roof he hammered his nail, and Mum got him some liquid paraffin and he held his thumb in that for 20 minutes to get rid of the throbbing – it worked!!

Not that I remember too much of Matopas, we did enjoy the freedom of being able to climb the rocks and explore. I know my poor sister had a hard time keeping up, but she made sure she managed!!