Two Shots, Then The Car Went Over

Locals tell of the moment two retired women plunged into the ocean in the latest Herolds Bay clifftragedy

- Jana Van Der Merwe

It's a sunny day in Herolds Bay. The school holidays are over and the crowds have left the popular Garden Route village. Here and there, local residents wander down to the shops or enjoy having the beach to themselves again.

In a local restaurant two elderly women are having coffee. Nicky van Niekerk and her partner, Lesley Briscoe (both 75), arrived here the previous week in their white Mazda. The women, from Krugersdorp in Gauteng, had been looking forward to their holiday. They told friends and neighbours in the Featherbrooke Hills retirement village where they lived that they’d visit friends and family in George before heading to nearby Herolds Bay for a beach break.

After booking into a local guesthouse, they called their neighbour, Anita Richards, who was watering their plants while away. “The weather is super,” Nicky told Anita. Later, Anita received a picture via WhatsApp with the caption, “Our view of the beach.”

It was the couple’s first holiday together in more than five years and they’d been excited about it, Anita says.

“Everything had been booked. They were relieved that Covid-19 hadn’t interfered with their plans. Like all of us, they needed to get away for a bit,” she recalls.

On the day they left, Anita got up early to see off her friends. She waved them goodbye, little realising it would be the last time she’d see them.

IT’S early evening when Chris Hattingh and his adult granddaughter, Danielle Terblanche, head home with their dog, walking along the cliff road past the Voëlklip lookout point.