I'm not a Jazz fan, not by a long shot. For some reason, perhaps because of watching too much television, when I hear "jazz" I think of a smoke filled bar with a lady hanging onto a mic accompanied by a piano, sax and double bass. So when I was invited to Cape Town on a blogger tour which included the Cape Town International Jazz Festival I wasn't too sure what to expect. Jazz? Festival? Me? That's going to be an interesting…
Except for yesterdays picture of the Ironman cyclists, I decided not to go into a long winded series of Ironman posts this year. Not because I don't want to, but because I didn't do the media thing for Ironman this year and rather had family time. Most of Saturday was spent at Ironkids with both of the KidZ taking part. But that isn't what this post is about. Rather, this post is dedicated to the lifeguards who assisted the kids so tirelessly throughout the afternoon. The…
This past weekend (12 - 14 April 2013) was Ironman weekend in Port Elizabeth which, in addition to the main Ironman event on Sunday, also included an Irongirl 8km run on Friday and Corporate Ironman and Ironkids on Saturday. Both Ironkids and Irongirl are the biggest events of their kind in the world. Just for those who don't know what Ironman is, its an ultra triathlon with competitors doing a 3,8 km swim followed by a 180 km cycle and ending off…
Durban has Comrades Marathon and Cape Town has the Two Oceans Marathon and the Argus Cycle Tour. Port Elizabeth has Ironman South Africa. Sunday morning at sunrise about 1800 super athletes, over 500 of them internationals, lined up at Hobie Beach for the start of a grueling day of swimming, cycling and running. The event starts with a 3,8km swim followed by a 180 cycle leg and topped off with a full 42,2km marathon. Competitors have till 12 midnight, meaning 17…
Do you think this picture was taken somewhere in a forest in the Tsitsikamma or Hogsback? Nope, it was taken at the end of St Clair's Way on Lovemore Heights at Humble Ways Retreat.
Strolling around Humble Ways on Lovemore Heights I noticed this bush of King Proteas. The King Protea is South Africa's national flower and although the flowers on the bush are past their prime, they were still stunning. I kinda wish I had a bush like this in my garden.
Towards the end of 2012 the city's Integrated Public Transport Service was finally ready to go operational and started running on the first routes to be implemented. I got to go on one of Port Elizabeth's ITPS buses for the first time this week and just couldn't help snapping a pic of the inside of the bus. Wouldn't have tried it during peak hour with a full bus though. Now if only the area I live in would be included on a…
Regular followers of my blogs would know by now that one of my strange travel quirks is historic cemeteries. On a recent visit to Oudtshoorn in the Klein Karoo I decided to revisit the Kerk Street Cemetery in the town for a closer look. The graveyard is an old one with most graves having disappeared over the years. In some cases there are headstone that look like they stand in the middle of nowhere and in other places you can see a grave mound…
A Geocaching outing took me to yet another new spot in Port Elizabeth the other day. Humble Ways Retreat is situated at the end of St Clair's Way on Lovemore Heights and owned by the Stucken family. There were three caches hidden on the property so I took Chaos Boy on a nice leisurely stroll enjoying the views of the natural surrounds. Although it was cloudy the views are still stunning, the one in the picture looking south across Lovemore…
The artEC (EPSAC) Gallery in Central recently opened an art shop selling local art and craft. Over the last couple of years the gallery has really seen a turnaround with new exhibitions happening just about every few weeks as well as workshops and other activities geared towards the local art community. The new art shop just adds to their offering and I'm sure I heard a little birdie tell me that there could be a coffee shop opening there at some stage…