Graaff-Reinet is one of my favorite towns to visit for so many reasons. I spent a night in this beautiful Karoo Heartland town a week or so ago arriving on a Sunday afternoon for a Monday morning meeting. Getting up early the morning I headed out to one of the view points looking out over the town before doing a little sightseeing to still be back in time for my meeting. Graaff-Reinet is the fourth oldest town in South Africa and…
Today's post is the second of two picture collages I made after my walk on the Bushbuck Trail in the Island Nature Reserve a while ago. I posted the first collage yesterday but have to apologise right off the bat. For some reason I referred to the trail as the Grysbok Trail yesterday and didn't pick it up till a friend phoned me this morning to point it out. How could I mix the names up like that? Who knows. …
A little while ago I got to go for a hike on the Bushbuck Trail in The Island Nature Reserve near Seaview. The Island is located about 25 km from Port Elizabeth and is accessed via the Seaview Road. The reserve forms a sub section of the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve and comprises 480 ha of indigenous Alexandria coastal forest boasting tree species such as Outeniqua yellow-wood, white and hard pear as well as white milkwood. Fauna include small blue duiker, bushbuck, vervet monkey and…
Port Elizabeth may not be Jeffreys Bay when it comes to being famous for surfing, but we do have a couple of half decent surf spots. Pipe next to Pollok Beach are one of those and I snapped these two surfers heading into the waves there a little while ago.
Most people visiting the Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet take a drive out to the Valley of Desolation to enjoy the magnificent views of the town and surrounding Karoo plains as well as the very sheer cliffs and unique Dolerite stone columns of the valley. I wonder how many people have spotted the monument on the left as you pass the dam just after leaving town. The Gideon Scheepers Monument remembers Commandant Gideon Scheepers who was a Boer scout and commanding officer during the Anglo-Boer War. …
Port Elizabeth has 40 kilometers of sandy beaches and that isn't counting the rocky shoreline in-between. Our main beachfront is our pride and joy with beaches like Kings Beach, Humewood, Hobie and Pollok Beach attracting thousands of visitors every week. And that's just the locals. I wonder how many people remember what Hobie Beach looked like before Shark Rock Pier was built in the 90's. A rocky little beach famous for the fact that many people launched their hobie cats…
It is Sunday the first of March. Flip, can you believe we're two months into 2015 already? Anyhow, I've spent my weekend at Welgelegen Camp on a Geocaching weekend away but not everybody is into caching. Some people spent their time on the beach while others headed out of town or tackled one of the stunning hiking trails we have around the city. Some decided to just chill at home. This couple spent their Sunday afternoon fishing off the rocks…
Geocaches come in all shapes and sizes but more often than not its a fairly plain container cunningly hidden somewhere interesting. The PE cachers have been stepping it up lately and more and more interesting containers are seeing the light of day, but every now and then something really wows you. Cacher Seekoei NMB has been doing a series of novel caches over the last year or so. One of them was this alien's head placed at... No, I'm not going to tell…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePn8bdrh6bo&w=500&h=400]When most South Africans use the term Sho't Left it is on a taxi and means that they are going a short distance and jump off just around the corner. South African Tourism has adopted the term for its domestic campaign to encourage locals to go on short inexpensive getaways to explore South Africa. This means that in tourism terms a Sho't Left is a weekend break only a couple of hours away from home. SAT released a series of…
Route 67 around the Donkin Reserve has some really interesting art pieces ranging from real taxi's mounted on a wall to the 470 square meter Piazza Mosaic next to the Pyramid. Then there's also the Voting Line with Madiba's figure at the front standing under the tallest flag pole in South Africa sporting a 10 m x 15 m South African flag. Looking across the reserve towards Algoa Bay stands a lone female figure on a pedestal. (Shouldn't men put all women on pedestals?) On closer…