Author: fitravel

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Have you ever heard of Tufa stromatolite?

One of the aspects of Geocaching is something called an Earth Cache.  An Earth Cache isn 't a physical cache where you have to find a container but rather something that teaches you about the earth and it's geology.  Last weekend I did an Earth Cache in Schoenmakerskop set up by Seekoei NMB called PE Tufa stromatolite ecosystems.  What is Tufa stromatolite?  Please bear with me because this get's very scientific (which means I'm copy and pasting from the listing otherwise…

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24/11/2016
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Sunset from Signal Hill

They say that you can't really say you've visited Cape Town if you haven't been up Table Mountain. We've done Table Mountain before and with a family of four it's a bit of an expensive exercise so on our whistle stop visit to the Mother City for the Cape Town Mega event we decided on the next best option.  Signal Hill.  Even better, Signal Hill at sunset.The one thing we didn't quite think of was that it was a Saturday…

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24/11/2016
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Pincushion Proteas at Van Stadens

We stopped by the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve on Sunday afternoon for a quick walk.  I've always found that it doesn't matter what time of year I visit the reserve, there is always something in flower.  At the moment it's the Pincushion Proteas.

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23/11/2016
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The N2 near Lady Slipper

Standing on the road bridge over the N2 in the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve looking down the highway towards Port Elizabeth.  Looking down on this dual carriage way it's hard to believe that it is the main highway just west of Port Elizabeth.  Nice and quiet.  Just the way we like our roads.

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22/11/2016
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The Bethulie Concentration Camp cemetery – a sad part of our history

Bethulie in the southern Free State is one of those places not many people pass through as it's not really on any of the main thoroughfares going south (or north, depending how you look at it).  On my last trip up to Johannesburg I deviated off the normal route to see what this town on the banks of the Orange River is all about.  One of the things I found out was that Bethulie was the site of one of…

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21/11/2016
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The Van Stadens Gorge

Looking down the zig zagging Van Stadens River gorge towards the N2 Van Stadens Bridge while hiking in the Wildflower Reserve yesterday

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21/11/2016
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A quick hike at Van Stadens

This afternoon we headed out to the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve for a quick walk to go and find the oldest Geocache in Port Elizabeth.  While the Damselfly waited in the car, Drama Princess and I headed down one of the trails in search of this very significant cache.  The Pincushion Proteas are stunning at the moment so I kept on falling behind. 

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20/11/2016
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Bird Island Gannets at Sunrise

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIPULi8q1h0&w=500&h=400]The 19 hectare Bird Island in Algoa Bay is home to 250,000 Cape gannets, the largest breeding colony of these birds on the planet.  In 2014 Alan Straton of MyPE did this great time lapse of Gannets on Bird Island at sunrise.

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18/11/2016
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The town of Despatch

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is made up of Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Despatch and the surrounding area.  But how much do you really know of Despatch?The Despatch area was originally occupied by a flourishing brick industry based here due to the rich clay soil you find in the district.  It got its name from the fact that bricks got dispatched form the original railway siding that connected to the main line running to Port Elizabeth from Uitenhage.  Many of the…

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17/11/2016