I took a late afternoon walk around the Kings Beach area a couple of weekends ago and just realized again how the development has enhanced the beachfront. The small lake really is a great addition to the area even though a lot of people are moaning about it, but it seems that some folk would always nitpick and look for something to complain about. The lake however is having a couple of problems but the Mandela Bay Development Agency who is…
Route 67 has some very distinctive art pieces, some easily identified for what they are and others a little more abstract. At the bottom of the Donkin Reserve at the start of the winding Election Queue walkway stands the very abstract tower sculpture. The Tower Sculpture acts as a beacon at the start of the journey onto the Donkin Reserve. The design allows for the tower to respond to the surrounding elements to allow wind and light to bring it to life. …
South Africa's National Anthem is a combination of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika ("Lord Bless Africa" in Xhosa) and the previous national anthem, Die Stem van Suid-Afrika ("The Call of South Africa" in Afrikaans). The anthem as we sing it today has been in use since 1996 when it was released as the new national anthem of South Africa under the new constitution. The anthem uses several of the official languages of South Africa. The first two lines of the first stanza are sung…
Is it a surf board? Is it a sail boat? Is it a seat? Well, its kind of a combination of the lot. Windward is one (or rather three) of the art pieces forming part of Route 67 on the Donkin Reserve. The shape of the sculptured benches hint at Port Elizabeth's nautical history while the title refers to city's "Windy City" nickname. The seats are made to look like a combination of a surf board and a sail boat…
Cradock is one of the main towns in the Karoo Heartland and this year celebrates 200 years since being founded. By the late 1700's Graaff-Reinet had been established as a magistrate district and Dutch farmers has settled in the area. In 1814 Sir John Cradock decided to build a series of forts along the lower Fish River and all the way up to present day Cradock to try to contain the Xhosa people to the East of the Fish River which by then…
Summer fun at the Splash Waterworld super tube at Kings Beach
Geocaching is fun with most caches hidden somewhere fairly easily eccessible. For a while now I've been eyeing Bird Rock on the beachfront thinking it could be a great site for an "extreme" terrain 5 cache and the other day I took a swim out there with fellow cachers Seekoei and erenei to place one with only three cachers swimming out there since to log it. Bird Rock is situated between Hobie Beach and Pollok Beach and is always surrounded…
On a recent Geocaching outing I got to walk a bit around what is left of the old Humewood narrow gauge station. Of the actual station and sheds nothing really remains, but there are still a couple of carriages on the line between where the station used to be and Kings Beach. Makes for interesting photography.
https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/O0pKrpj-Loc&source=udsI am an African and I am proud to call myself an African. Yes, my forefathers came from Europe a couple of hundred years ago, but my father, grand father, great grand father and before him was born in Africa. As was I. Does it mean that the fact that I am white means I'm not an African? I beg to differ from anybody who would so say so. I am a white African. A proud African. One with a passion for…
In the mid 1800's there was a boom happening in Port Elizabeth. It was during this time that Sir George Grey, Governor of the Cape from 1854-61, played a leading role in the establishment of educational institutes throughout the colony. At the instigation of John Paterson, one of Port Elizabeth's the first Town Councillors, the then municipality took over vacant land on top of the hill opposite the Donkin Reserve and the establishment of a grammar school. A Mr Archibald was commissioned to prepare…