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Whale watching in Algoa Bay

https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/a_iY6AeMtyA&source=udsAlan Fogarty of Alan Tours offers a Big 7 tour that starts off with a whale watching excursion with Raggy Charters before heading to Addo to find the rest of the Big 5.  Whales visit our shores mostly between April and November with Southern Right and Humpback whales being the big boys to look out for.  I picked up this whale watching video on YouTube taken on one of Alan's tours.

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19/12/2014
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Soweto landscape

A typical Soweto landscape with the Orlando Towers in the background and a couple of minibus taxi's thrown in for good measure, photographed from the Hector Pieterson Memorial.

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18/12/2014
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Pebbles on Denville Beach

Going to the beach in Port Elizabeth usually means heading to Kings Beach, Humewood, Hobie Beach or Sardinia Bay.  There are many little beaches and corners in between like Denville Beach next to McArthur Pools.  Denville is a popular spot for beginner surfers but not that frequently used by bathers as the surrounding beaches.  Denville and Humewood Beach is separated by rocks and I photographed these pebbles on the beach as we were heading towards those rocks on a day of beach exploration.

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18/12/2014
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Kuzuko view

The Addo Elephant National Park is literally on Port Elizabeth's doorstep and is South Africa's third largest national park.  Strange how some people still think its just about elephants.  These days the park stretch all the way from the coast through the main game viewing area and over the Zuurberg into the Karoo.  One of the private concession lodges in the park is Kuzuko Lodge.  Kuzuko is situated just over the mountain and has a very different fauna and flora…

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17/12/2014
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A Pale Chanting Goshawk in Addo

I have never been a big bird expert.  When I started working as a tourist guide I went to a lot of effort to increase my birding knowledge, but a LBJ (little brown job) and an Overtheroadian were still the most common answers I gave when something flashed across the road as we drove along somewhere.  Addo Elephant National Park has a bird checklist of over 400 species with about 200 occurring within the main game area. In all the years that I…

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16/12/2014
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Grysbok Trail flowers

Most people just associate Fynbos with proteas yet with over 9000 different species of plants in the biome there are many more flowers to be seen.  A early morning walk on the Grysbok Trail in the NMMU Nature Reserve had me spot this clump of flowers which, at closer inspection, was actually made up of three different types of flowers.  Just shows that one shouldn't go through life with your eyes closed as there are beauty to be found everywhere. 

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16/12/2014
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Beachfront sign – also a grass safe house

Don't you just love (or hate) it when people do something with all the good intentions in the world and then afterwards realize that they just didn't think it through properly.  I spotted this sign at Kings Beach the other day and it clearly falls in that category.  The sign is part of the Kings Beach Park development pointing out the skate park, play park, beach and other things.  The sign has a backing with a glass front but the problem is…

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15/12/2014
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Waiting for the sevens

Late last week I got to go on a pre Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens Instawalk around the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium as the final touches was being put in place for this weekend's #NMB7s tournament.  I've been to the stadium so many times before and I was looking for something slightly different and I kinda like the result I got just by changing the angle a little bit. 

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14/12/2014
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The Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens

This weekend is a huge sporting weekend in Port Elizabeth.  The Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens is taking place at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.  The NMB 7's is part of the International Sevens World Series and the only leg taking place in Africa.  I took the KidZ for day 1 yesterday and we had an awesome time.  The weather was superb.  The turnout was good (better than last year). The vibe was great and people were having a ball.  Today is day 2…

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14/12/2014
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Caching on the Grysbok Trail with Drama Princess

Last Sunday I hit the Grysbok Trail in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Nature Reserve with Drama Princess for a bit of an early morning Geocaching outing.  We signed in at 6:50am and set off down the trail at a brisk pace.  The Grysbok Trail really is a gem.  One that I bet very few people know of.  Not just do you get to see so many different fynbos species and flowers, but a herd of springbuck or zebra can…

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13/12/2014