Today has been one hectic day. I am actually on leave for two days, but has four people from the office contact me during the morning regarding work stuff. Aaarrgggg!!! Anyway, we are also going away for the weekend to go and explore the little Karoo town of Cradock as well as the Mountain Zebra National Park. As it is it is after midnight already and we want to leave at 07:00 in the morning, I have run out of…
Pied Kingfisher captured in the Baakens River near the harbour, opposite the old Tramways building.
Yesterday I said that I will do a couple of posts about the 1820 British Settlers, so here is part 1. I will keep the info short, because if I have to get my teeth into it, I will go on and on.Before 1820, Port Elizabeth was the eastern end of the Cape Colony. To the east lived the indigenous black people of the area, namely the Xhosa. The colonial government got worried that they may attack the colony and…
Returning to the harbour from the East, one passes the lovely old Brewery buildings, now standing empty and deteriorating fast. In the foreground is the breakwater with dolosse designed by an East London engineer. For more information go to Sue's post on Dolosse.
If you ever get to enter the City of Port Elizabeth from the sea, this is what greets you on entering the harbour, the harbour master's tower, checking on all shipping movements.
Continuing with our whale watching trip from last week, the map from google earth will give you a better idea of where we went. In the next few days we'll continue to show you the highlights.Along the way, the skipper, Lloyd, (facing the camera, in red and white jacket) fountain of much knowledge about the marine life of the bay, stopped to explain about the penguins we had just seen. He mentioned that they mate for life, and do not…
In yesterday's post I showed the Seal Point lighthouse in Cape St Francis. I decided to stick to the little village for today's post, and sommer post two totally different pic for the measure. Cape St Francis started out as a little fishing village in the 1950's. Today its still small and charming and a very popular holiday and surfing spot. A couple of months ago we went to camp in Cape St Francis for the weekend and it was…
The area about 65 - 120km west of Port Elizabeth is known as the Kouga (Place of many fat animals). The coastal towns of the Kouga is situated around the Bay of St Francis. Included in the area is the surfing and shell town of Jeffreys Bay, the very upmarket marina canal village of St Francis Bay and then the western point of the Cape St Francis. At the point is the Seal Point Lighthouse built in 1878. It used…
One of the most famous landmarks in South Africa is Table Mountain overlooking the city of Cape Town. Cape Town is situated on the south western end of the continent and South Africa's most saught after destination. Cape Town is situated about 750km from Port Elizabeth and the area in between is known as the Garden Route. I don't get to Cape Town nearly enough, but when I was there three weeks ago I got to do some sightseeing with…
Kwantu Private Game Reserve is an unique reserve in that it is owned by a Muslim family and they are sticking strictly to their Islamic traditions by not allowing alcohol on the reserve. Their food is also very Eastern in flavour. I've had the opportunity to visit the reserve a couple of times while I was a tour guide and this giraffe pic was taken one late afternoon at about sunset.