The end of an era – Mastertons

Anyone in PE who is a fan of good coffee will know Mastertons, in Russell Road. Funnily enough, it is not so much for the lovely aroma, because they don't brew coffee there, but roast it, so the smell in the street is often more acrid than delicious, but they produce wonderful blends. Sadly, I saw in the press recently that they are soon to close down, as the old man wants to retire, and his son is not keen…

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Gariep Dam Sunrise

With the sun rising just after 05:00 am, I didn't think that I will be able to get up early enough to get a decent sunrise pic over the Gariep Dam while on holiday. But luck (if you can call it that)was on my side. One night we had a couple with three small kids camping next to us in their tent. The baby cried just about the whole night and waking up for the upteenth time I relised that…

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Farewell brave lady….

Yesterday flags in South Africa flew at half mast in honour of Helen Suzman, who for many years was the lone opposition voice in Parliament, speaking out against Apartheid. She died last week at age 91, and leaves behind a proud legacy.Helen Suzman has always been a hero in our eyes, the way she bravely stood her ground when all those Nat chauvinists were giving her a hard time, yet never lost her dignity or humanity or integrity was so…

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Gariep Dam

The big unpacking has started. We got back yesterday from our two week camping holiday and everything is out of the car and waiting to be sorted, cleaned or stored. At least I've downloaded all my pics. The first week was spent camping at the Gariep Dam in the center of South Africa while the second week was spent on the coast at Cannon Rocks. Most of the time at Gariep was spent next to the pool, but during the…

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sunrise? what sunrise?

This is especially for those of you in chilly Northern Climes who have been accusing us of rubbing salt in the wound with all our sunny beach pix! Taken at 5am yesterday. When we do the last shift of neighbourhood watch patrol, we like to end it by checking out the sunrise, so we went to one of our favourite viewpoints, the Donkin Reserve. However, as you can see, there was very little chance that the sun was going to…

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After the Party

Our shift of Neighbourhood Watch patrol was from 2-5am this morning, so we got to see the end of the New Year's Party in Parliament Street. This was taken at 4.48am, when the party had just ended, and the street took on a warm glow from the lights reflecting on the wet streets. By the way, judging by all those pavement decorations, are we to assume the architects of this new look had a lot of balls? hehe.

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A gem on the coast

Today's post is not strictly Port Elizabeth. We are staying at Port St Francis, which is about 100 kms from Port Elizabeth. This shot was taken from the view point above the Port this morning, showing Seal Point, the lighthouse and the village of Cape St Francis. In the foreground is the nature reserve between Cape St Francis and St Francis Bay. This is definitely one of our favourite places on the planet.

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34 Degrees South

One of our favourite places to eat out is 34 Degrees South at the Boardwalk. It has a nice ambiance, a good menu to choose from, good service and a great view. Today was no exception and the Cape Salmon was superb. Update - 34 Degrees South closed down and has been replaced with a Spur.

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