I AM writing in support of Allan Townsend whose letter appeared in the Highway Mail dated 22 September 2017.
I have lived in the Highway area since 1963 and have a clear recollection of what it was like back then and how it is now.
My first point of reference is Bamboo Lane which back then was predominantly dirt and there were indeed bamboo trees.
Back then kids used to ride bicycles and we used to explore our environment with vigour. I covered the area from the Fairydene Hotel to the power station and across to Ashley and Westmead. If we ever saw a monkey it was in the Paradise Valley area and was a rare sight.
I then moved to the Ivy Park area. We were in the Palmiet River valley with trees all round and we could leave our tent flaps open and we were never invaded by monkeys. There were none.
My next point of reference is Manning Road at the bottom of Cowies Hill from where I used to venture out on my bike to Westville and all the little back roads around Cowies Hill. There were no monkeys.
From time to time you might see some foraging in the valley behind what is now the Westville university.
From Cowies Hill we moved to Hammarsdale and Inchanga. We would have to ride out towards Nagle Dam before we would see a monkey.
At that time they would camp near the picnic spots where people would stop to look at the Valley of a Thousand Hills. They would beg from the picnickers and because they were fed they used to remain in those areas.
From Hammarsdale we moved to Hillcrest from where I attended Kloof High School.
Again, my main means of transport was my bike and I used to ride to school from Hillcrest. Kloof gorge was a favourite route and the only place you would find a monkey was at the Kloof gorge picnic spot where again picnickers would feed the little pests.
Through the 70s I was again in Pinetown in the Ashley area and Farningham Ridge.
There were no monkeys. It was only in about 1985 that we started getting monkey visitors in Glenugie Road where a small troop used to forage up the Palmiet River valley stealing whatever fruit they could from the gardens in the area.
They never went anywhere near a house.
In 1993 I moved to Winston Park where for seven years I did not see a monkey.
From Winston Park I moved down Inanda Road and lived in an Estate where we were not permitted to have burglar bars but it was not a problem as again there were no monkeys.
I now live on the Hospital Road side of Hillcrest and for the first time in my life I have encountered marauding vervet monkeys.
They breeze through the area on a regular basis and if your windows are not shut the will be into your house like a flash. The now know how to open partially open windows and have no problem with cupboards and containers.
Today, almost anywhere you drive in Hillcrest, you will find a troop of monkeys wandering the streets in search of food.
The comment about them being matrilineal territorial creatures is a load of rubbish as they they are now being born into the urban areas so they are basically spreading their territory wider and wider.
I wonder if there are any real wild monkeys left in these areas? Needless to say I am all for culling.
Rex Montgomery
Hillcrest
