We visited the Addo Elephant National Park last Sunday for the first time in way too long. There was a time that I went there quite often, so it was very exciting to get back there. Addo had some rain a couple of weeks ago and the park seems to be slowly recovering from the devastating drought that is hanging over our area. We found this young bull at the Spekboom waterhole. At Spekboom you can actually get out of…
Kemsley Park next to the SAP sports fields just off Mount Road was one of two Anglo Boer War concentration camp sites in Nelson Mandela Bay. The other one is situated just outside Uitenhage. Roché Petersen has pointed out to me in a previous post that the dead from the concentration camp was buried in the North End Cemetery where there also is a memorial. I haven't had a chance to pop by there to check it out, but hope…
The Port Elizabeth Harbour is used by commercial boats, fishing boats and recreational boats (yachts). People normally associate fishing with the small harbours along the South Western Cape and West Coast, so PE doesn't get seen as much of a fishing harbour. But that is where they are wrong. It does have a huge number of fishing boats that are based here and that offload their catch at the fishing facilities. Most of the catch gets processed here so you…
In July 1829, Dr. William Gill was appointed District Surgeon of the newly founded town and district of Somerset. Upon his death in 1863, he left the main portion of his estate to found and maintain an institution for higher education in the Eastern Cape. His will stipulated that no portion of the estate was to be spend on the purchase or erection of buildings. Consequently, Somerset farmers and townsfolk pledged that they would erect the necessary buildings. Gill College…
The Burchell's Zebra is quite common in the Eastern Cape and the majority of game reserves would have them. Have you ever wondered if a Zebra was white with black stripes or black with white stripes? How do you differentiate between a male and female zebra without turning them upside down and looking at the obvious? The males are black and white and the female are white and black.
One of the exhibits at the VW AutoPavilion in Uitenhage featuring two Beetles. The scene depicts the two vehicles in an old workshop. I love the legs wearing gumboots sticking out from under the closest one.
The Great Fish River is one of the great rivers of the Eastern Cape. It originates east of the town of Graaff-Reinet and, 644 kilometers later, flows into the Indian Ocean about 30km east of Port Alfred. Even though the river originates in the arid Karoo, it generally runs all year around. It is possible to use water from the Orange River (diverted through the Orange / Fish River Pipeline) to keep up the flow during dry periods. At the…
Addo Elephant National Park is probably the most popular destination as a day trip out of Port Elizabeth. Visitors can either go to the park in their own vehicles or with a tour operator. Once at the park you can drive through the park in the vehicle you came in as it is a national park, or you can book an open vehicle game drive guided by a game ranger. In the days when I was still a tourist guide…
I know this isn't the happiest of pictures, but it still fascinated me when I saw it and I couldn't help taking a picture of it. It is a dead Cape Gannet which was washed up on the rocks at high tide. I have actually posted another dead gannet photo before (macabre isn't it?) which can be seen here.This picture was paired with a poem called Death by Benjamin Saccaggi on The Poetry Project website.DEATHThe panorama is mesmerisingAnd the air…