This morning I joined a couple of colleagues for breakfast at Angelo's on the beachfront to celebrate one of their birthdays. Sitting there watching a couple of dolphins pass by we all just realised again how privileged we are living in this beautiful coastal city where we can sit and have a meal with a view like this.
Fort Frederick sits above the Baakens Valley overlooking the Port Elizabeth Harbour and was built in 1799 by the British Forces to defend the mouth of the Baakens River to prevent a possible landing of French troops to assist the Graaff-Reinet rebels. The fort was named after Frederick, Duke of York who was the Colonial Secretary at the time. Ironically the fort never fired a shot in anger although it was defended by eight 12-powder guns.
I spent my day in the garden mowing the lawn and cleaning my rock garden. Weeding the garden wasn't that hard because it so dry at the moment that even the weeds are dying. We seriously need rain. But my day also meant that I didn't get to go out and take a few pictures for this week's posts which means I really need to get out there tomorrow. Anyhow, after a hard Saturday's grafting it was time to light…
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO5kb_-nrhA&w=500&h=400]For a big period of the time that I worked for Nelson Mandela Bay the tagline used by the organisation was "Discover Freedom". It was a play on words using the link of Nelson Mandela's name and freedom from Apartheid but also referred to the freedom the city offers visitors to choose what they want to do without saying "you have to do this or that", our wide open spaces, wildlife and many attractions. When I started working there in…
Before all these wind farm that have been going up at Jbay, the Tsitsikamma, Blue Horizon Bay and on the Addo Road there was only one. The very first wind turbine to be erected in the area was the one close to the N2 in the Coega Industrial Development zone. One that's still standing all by it's lonesome self. I took a drive through the IDZ today and decided to snap a pic of it.
So how high does one jump when you're walking around in the grass looking at the horizon and see movement from the corner of your eye to find about 10 of these colourful Elegant Grasshoppers all around your legs. In my case pretty high as I did taking some photos with my phone in the Coega area. Sorry I didn't have my camera to get a better picture though.
The view up the Mosaic Steps at the Donkin Reserve must be one of my favorite views of this iconic spot.
Everybody who has ever been on holiday, weekend away or a hiking trip in the Drakensberg in summer will tell you that you are very likely to have your afternoon interrupted by a little, or sometimes a rather big, thunderstorm bringing along with it some thunder and lighting and a few (which could also be quite a lot) drops of rain. Our 10 days at Mahai in the Northern Drakesberg's Royal Natal National Park was no different and while there…
I was on the Wild Coast for a meeting this morning and drove back this afternoon with rain just about all the way. As I was approaching Port Elizabeth there were more clear sky around and coming down the hill towards Colchester and the Sundays River the clouds looked like an approaching front. With my phone mounted on the dash I just pushed the camera button and clicked a pic. A totally "wrong" picture in anybody's book. Skew horizon, bad…
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBfPkYiARHs&w=500&h=400]While looking around YouTube in search of a video to post for this week's Video Friday post I came across this one featuring video footage from the late 50's and 60's. Not a lot of vintage footage like this around.