Did you know that the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth is the only poison free stadium in the world? From the outset the stadium has worked hand in hand with the Urban Raptor Project to fight the potential problems of feral pigeons, crows, rats and insects in a natural way. Trained falcons have been brought in from time to time to chase and hunt the pigeons that try to move into the stadium. A while ago I attended a rugby…
Die Kango Wildlife Ranch in Oudtshoorn het 'n lang pad gekom van die dae toe dit net 'n krokodilplaas was. Alhoewel daar deesdae baie ander dinge is om te sien by hierdie bekende attraksie speel krokodille nog altyd 'n rol. By die Springende Kake (Jumping Jaws) word die krokodil uit die water uit gelok met 'n stuk vleis. Hy spring letterlik halflyf uit om die vleis te vat en terwyl dit gebeur staan besoekers met opgehoue asems om te sien of die gids…
The Sacramento Trail along the coast between Schoenmakerskop and Sardinia Bay isn't just the most popular trail in the city but probably also one of the most scenic. A couple of us decided to do the 7km long trail the other day with only myself having done it (long ago) previously. We decided to take the trail along the shore from Schoenies and then turn up to the top trail along the vegetated dunes back from Sardinia Bay. The reason we…
During the school holidays its always a bit of a challenge to keep bored children busy. Most parents end up taking them to the movies, for ice cream at Micky D's, playing putt putt and games or one of the party places with jungle gyms and trampolines. Me? Well, I try to spend at least a day with the Kidz exploring Port Elizabeth or surrounding area for them to get to know the city better. During the past holiday we headed out to discover some…
The area around Schoenmakerskop and the Sacramento Trail has a number of fresh water springs seeping out the surrounding countryside and flowing down towards the sea. With all the rain we've had these past couple of months some of the little streams are flowing nice and strong. This specific one can be found close to the Sacramento monument a few hundred meters down the trail.
Whenever we have excessive rain in Port Elizabeth the 3rd Avenue Dip is the first road that gets closed. When Port Elizabeth has manor flooding, like we've had twice in the last three weeks, one of the roads that get the worst effected is the Seaview Road at the Deer Park turnoff. There is no river that runs through there, but the runoff from the surrounding hills dam up at the bottom and over the last 6 years have caused major flooding on at…
Even though there is still another month to go till the end of winter we've already had the 3rd wettest winter ever in Port Elizabeth. Last week we had two days of rain again and this following the flooding we had three weeks ago means that there is a lots of water around. I drove out to have a look at the Seaview Road just outside the city which is over 1,5 meters under water. Took this picture to the side of…
Today's post follows on yesterday's Takeaway in the township post. Here one of the mamas who run the shop is busy putting the fat cakes into a plastic bag for us. Caroline commented on the previous post about the grille and that it shows something about the area where the take away is in. The grille does form part of the counter but the side gate, even though they can lock it if they choose, is always open. After asking for permission to take some pictures I entered through…
Over the last two weeks I have ventured into the townships with one of my colleagues for lunch on two occasions. Mr X knows the townships like the back of his hand and some of the places we stopped at I don't think I will every find again. The first time we got amagwinya (vetkoek or fatcake which is a ball of dough deep fried in oil) with sliced polony at one of the informal takeaways doing business from a shipping…
Life and the universe tend to sneak you a very pleasant and unexpected surprise every now and then and I clearly got one of those pulling into my driveway the other day. As I turned off thew road I spotted something on the lawn under one of the two big palm trees in my front yard. There right in front of me was a bird of prey sitting on top of one of the palm trees' resident pigeons feeding away with…