We have featured 34 degrees South before. It is one of our favourite restaurants, with a great deli and one of the widest ranges of seafood and Mediterranean dishes anywhere. This sign amused us, although I must admit it could well be the motto of the dictators in some of our neighbouring states!
We have posted about South End before, it is one of the areas that were cleared out during the Apartheid era, because of the racialy mixed community, and this church was later demolished because the congregation kept returning here to worship. It remains as a necessary reminder of a shameful part of our history that will hopefully never be repeated!
Those of you who have been to PE and been away for a while would be gobsmacked to see how fast the city is growing. Remember the big open space along Buffelsfontein Road, between 10th Ave Walmer and Miramar and Mount Pleasant on the outskirts? Well it is musrooming into a ribbon of townhouse complexes and retail outlets, and has become so built up that the road is being widened into 4 lanes! This is part of the section between…
Here is another aerial view of the lighthouse, taken when our son took us flying a couple of years ago, to look for whales. You can see some of the rocky reefs jutting into the sea.
Here is another view of the Cape Recife Lighthouse. You can read more about it in the previous 2 posts.
Yesterday we showed you Cape Recife. There are some trecherous reefs on the rocky coastline at this point, including the infamous Thunderbolt reef, so named because it claimed the HMS Thunderbolt in 1847.It was realised that a lighthouse was needed here, and so the Cape Recife lighthouse was built and commissioned on 1 April 1851. It is 24 meter masonry tower, painted with distinctive black and white bands.Since then, despite the presence of the warning light, the reefs in the…
A group of local artists get together each week for a bit of plein air painting (painting in the open, on the spot, rather than from photos). This morning we went to a dairy farm along Kragga Kamma Road, on the outskirts of town, and painted the dam, and beautiful spotted local cattle called Ngunis. It was great to be part of this group, a good mixture of fun, sharing skills and being productive, not to mention the pure joy…
Sometimes there are things that are unique to your town, but they are such a part of everyday life that you don't even realise it. One such example is the route markers on our roads. The green background image behind the route numbers depicts the Donkin lighthouse and Pyramid, which are such iconic symbols of our City, follow the link to read the historic background. (If you look at the profile picture on our sidebar, you will see the real…
When I went on a very interesting and inspiring tour of St Albans Prison recently, one of the lighter moments was provided when we walked into the workshops which are used to train the prisoners in various skills. The first workshop we entered had been burnt out in a recent fire, and we came across this prison uniform hanging menacingly there. The Commandant was a bit taken aback by this macabre touch in the midst of her PR exercise. Her…
At the entrance to the Boardwalk Casino is a fountain, and it doubles up as a wishing well. This little guy just kept wanting to throw coins in... (a bit like the adults inside at the slot machines hehe) hope it's not a sign of things to come!