Hermanus over the past few years had become my one and a half hour drive to a piece of happiness. A place filled with endless memories of good times, smiles and laughs. Unfortunately my view of this beautiful seaside town changed drastically on a weekend away (18 – 20 September) due to the disgusting, arrogant behavior of a group of about 20 underage drunken local boys and the Hermanus police.

During our stay we celebrated a good friend’s 21st birthday and in true Cape Town style we headed to any place with a dance floor and music. It was clear when entering Bo Jangles, a bar/nightclub, that we were the only ‘tourists’ there. It was here that the locals must have felt threatened by the 3 boys who had come with us and conveniently found some random excuse to get them kicked out. To their surprise, us girls left too, leaving the bar half empty. As our evening progressed the same boys followed us around town attempting impress us girls with their not so impressive dance moves and “soeking for kak” with our boys until finally one of the local boys punched one of our boys leading to series of abusive behaviour. It was made very clear to us, in a screaming match that we needed to go back to Cape Town and we were not welcome in Hermanus. We then decided we had had enough of the local obscene behaviour (that left the birthday girl in tears) and we attempted to leave only to find a group of about 20 local boys (most of them drunk) waiting to beat our boys up. We very politely asked them to leave us alone because we just wanted to head back to the house we were staying but obviously messing with us had become the highlight of their sad lives.

So there we were, six girls and three boys up against 20 boys, in a David verse Goliath type situation. We held ourselves together as we walked to the car being shouted and sworn at. The words that came our way were so disgusting and filthy that it was hard for us to just walk away with out feeling belittled. It wasn’t long before they became violent and attacked us. They had two of our boys on the ground surrounded by 10 locals each who were kicking and punching them. It was like something out of the movies except way too real. Us girls put our brave faces on and attempted to pull, push and scream at the locals to make them stop while bystanders and the bouncers at Bo Jangles either stood laughing at us or joined in on the attack. After phoning the police the locals fled and our two boys were left with bruised bodies and black eyes. One of the girls had been punched in the face. All of us were in shock.

The police arrived and were more concerned about who had been drinking than hearing what had happened. Ironically one of the policemen actually admitted that he had been drinking and got aggressive. We then decided to press charges after finding out a few of the local boys names only to be treated like it was entirely our fault and we deserved what had happened at the police station. Driving back to the house the car was filled with each of us telling our own versions of the same story.

I feel that with a backdrop as beautiful as the landscape that Hermanus has, it’s so sad that the savages that live there now juxtapose it and the police who are meant to be a neutral, safe and sober backup against crime don’t really care . I now feel that this place that once made my heart smile has now been tainted with a memory that overpowers the happiness. All of this happened just a week before this weekend’s annual Whale Festival and it scares me to think what will happen to others like ourselves who think that they coming to their own one-and-a-half hour drive to a piece of happiness.

Lara Moses is The Soapbox’s contributing editor.