Travel Blog

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Donkin Reserve lit up

When I went to visit my sister in hospital the other night to see my new niece, I drove by the Donkin Reserve and had to stop to take this pic. The moon was beautiful in the sky and the floodlights on the lighthouse made it a pretty sight. I have posted a day pic of the Donkin Reserve before here: http://fireflyafrica.blogspot.com/2008/07/pe-monuments-1.htmlI found that the pic wasn't exactly what I wanted it to be. I also tried to take one…

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18/09/2008
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Snail graveyard

Just to east of Port Elizabeth is the Sundays River Valley. From the mouth of the Sundays River running east is the biggest coastal dune field in the Southern Hemisphere, namely the Alexandria Dunefields. Recently we went on the Sundays River Ferry for a pleasure ride. The ferry stops close to the river mouth for passengers to get off and go for a short walk onto the dunes. In between the dunes I found this snail "cemetery". It was quite…

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18/09/2008
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Zooming In….

....on yesterday's view, and the harbour and city centre are magically transformed into an ethereal fairyland by the wonderful early morning light.

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18/09/2008
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South American Grafitti

One of the things that I picked up on the South American trip is that there is a huge amount of grafitti around. Specially in Sau Paulo it is on everything. On some buildings you stand in awe and try to figure out how it got on walls several floors up from the ground. Grafitti is such an problem that most of the statues and monuments are fenced off with wooden fencing to stop people from drawing grafitti on them.…

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17/09/2008
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The Opera House

Ok, not the view you would expect, of the front of the building, this is backstage, so to speak! Taken from the Donkin reserve, overlooking the cliff on Whites Road, and the roof of the Opera House, to the city below. The dome of City Hall peeps over the roof in the centre, while the steeple of St Augustine's is to the right.

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17/09/2008
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My new niece

I interrupt my posts on my South American trip to show off my new niece. Liandi Jonker was born yesterday, 15 September 2008, at 13h30. She decided to arrive about 3 weeks early and weighed 2,45kg (5,4 pounds) at birth. Here a very proud dad is holding his daughter, while my sister threatened me with painfull torture and death if I post a pic of her on here. The Rugrats obviously can't wait to see their cousin for the first…

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16/09/2008
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then and now … the baakens valley

We have received some fascinating photos of old postcards from John, an ex PE resident who now lives in UK. Here is a view of the Baakens Valley taken from Fort Frederick on Friday ... and here is how it looked around the turn of the century....The buildings up on the hill are all new, as the racially integrated South End was demolished by the Apartheid Government in the late 60s. If you want to read more, click on the…

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16/09/2008
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Ibirapuera Park – Sao Paulo

On my day of sightseeing in Sao Paulo I stumbled on Ibirapuera Park. At 345 acres (140 ha) or 0.6 sq mi (1.6 km2), Sao Paulo's biggest city park can be compared with Central Park in New York. The park contains two large lakes and paths criss cross throughout. The paths are devided into a walking section and a section for bicycles and is used by hundreds of people every day. There are several monuments, museums and galleries in the…

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15/09/2008
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our odd weather continues

While thunderstorms are very common inland, here at the coast they are a rarity, and we usually get cold rain associated with Antarctic cold fronts. For the last few days the air has been very warm, as berg winds come down from inland. This was followed by a hail storm last night. At least life is interesting around here!

5 Comments
15/09/2008
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Cementerio de la Recoleta

Although my trip to South America was a good one as far as business goes, it wasn't that outstanding for photography. I had a full day in Sao Paulo to do a bit of sightseeing, but my sightseeing in Buenos Aires was sunk by cancelled and delayed flights. This meant that I had about an hour to see something and if there was one thing I wanted to see, it was Eva Peron's grave. So 07:30 the morning after breakfast…

7 Comments
14/09/2008