Thursday Betsy and I took a taxi to Ainab and back. We chose the driver
who’d taken us to the cemetery. He was so nice, somewhat educated and
unobtrusive.
Takes no time to get to Ainab, our road is paved and has same
configurations, first part doesn’t seem as steep, the last push seemed very
steep.
Looking out to table mountain and the path to Shemlan you see many
houses in cut stone or in concrete and Table mtn. is partially forested. Our grove is skimpier with trees, tennis court grassed and neglected. All
properties are fenced in barbed wire or stone. Crawford and Dodd house in good
shape and occupied. Crawfords have a big iron gate closing it off. A caretaker
for that house came out and without our asking took us on obscure paths all
around each property. Kerrs and Closes totally neglected and in severe
disrepair. Our house is the only one non-existent. The rock is there and we
located a piece of ceramic tile in the ground that had to be the maids toilet.
Cistern in place, open and half full. I took pictures of everything. Was it sad
to see it? I didn’t feel much of anything except remembering the past and the
good times growing up there. So it had changed and I accepted that. Didn’t want
to explore to find the cement roads because the caretaker went out of his way
to show us around. Definitely worth that second trip to Ainab because without someone to take us around, I wouldn’t
have wanted to trespass. Standing at the car place and looking toward the big
tree is a huge mansion in cut stone, long driveway, gated and guarded: it’s
between Dodds and Kerrs but half way to big tree.
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| Leavitt house Remnants |
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| Leavitt house cistern and dining room |
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View of new houses from Leavitt house
Close house
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Kerr house
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Villa between Dodd and Kerr houses
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| Dodd house |
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| Entrance to Crawford house (looking toward tennis courts), Arab family in residence |
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| Crawford garden |
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| Parking lot & tennis court |
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