Author: fitravel

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Happy Valley stream

The little stream running through Happy Valley is actually Shark River. In the early days of Port Elizabeth Shark River used to be the town's main water supply. Shark River isn't really much of a river anymore and the water gets pumped from the bottom pool back to the top of Happy Vally which means that it doesn't have a river mouth into the ocean anymore. In actual fact the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium and the suburb of Forest Hills…

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08/08/2009
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Sign posts

I always enjoy it if I go somewhere and there is a sign post pointing towards major world cities along with distances. At that moment you realise how big the world really is and while I'm typing this the contrary is also true as within nanoseconds of clicking publish post this post will be available world wide. This one stands on the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town... ... while this one is situated at Cape Point

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07/08/2009
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Almshouses cornerstone

Today's post is a follow-up of yesterdays. Yesterday I showed you the Almshouses in the historic part of Bethelsdorp and told you that the original cornerstone is still visible. For today I wanted to show you a pic of the actual cornerstone. For Europeans 1822 may not be very old, but over here in Port Elizabeth it is a mere 2 years after the landing of the British Settlers.

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07/08/2009
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Bethelsdorp Almshouses

Bethelsdorp in the northern areas of Port Elizabeth was founded as the first mission station in the Eastern Cape by London Missionaries Van der Kemp and Read in 1802. They convinced the Colonial government of the Cape to establish a settlement for the indigenous people on educational, religious and social ground. The Almshouses built in 1822 was part of the Mission Station and can still be seen just behind the Van Der Kemp Memorial Church. An interesting feature of the…

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06/08/2009
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Port Elizabeth Harbour

The Port Elizabeth harbour was built in 1935 and is used for the export of fruit, mohair, cars and manganese ore. It also has a very active container terminal as well as fishing fleet. The entrance channel to the harbour is maintained at a depth of 14.5m and has a generous width of 310m. The draught of vessels allowed into the harbour range from 9.6m to 12.1m. A lot of the current activities taking place at the PE Harbour will…

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05/08/2009
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Hillbrow Tower

Today I am posting another of the pics I took when I was in Johannesburg recently.The Hillbrow Tower is the highest structure in Johannesburg, and is probably the city's most recognisable landmark. The tower was completed in 1971, and is 269m high. It is interesting to note that the height of the Hillbrow Tower is virtually the same as the length of the Titanic.

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05/08/2009
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Bees

Yes, yes, I know I posted a pic of a bee last week, but over the weekend we visited friends of ours for a birthday party and I couldn't help noticing the bees on the Strelitzia flowers outside. So as my colleague PP said the other day. "He probably saw a goggatjie (little bug) somewhere to photograph." And I did... from different angles.

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04/08/2009
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Pasella TV Show

I was fortunate enough to be asked to be part of a shoot for the SABC 2 Afrikaans magazine show Pasella today. Along with my colleague S, I got to take the the presenter, Vicky Davis, and the crew on a walkabout along some of the places on the Donkin Heritage Trail. Here we are standing at the Prester John monument across the road from the Feather Market Centre. The show will be broadcasted in the first week of September.

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02/08/2009