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Donkin Reserve, a Port Elizabeth icon

I often post pictures taken around the  Donkin Reserve but I realised that I haven't taken one looking slightly up the hill with both the lighthouse and the pyramid in it for a while.  The Donkin Reserve is truly one of the most iconic sites (and sights) in Port Elizabeth and has recently been names one of Nelson Mandela Bay's Top 10 tourism icons.  The pyramid was built as a monument to Lady Elizabeth Donkin (after whom the city was…

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20/06/2012
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Citrus farm tour

While browsing around the stalls at the Patensie Citrus Festival on Saturday I heard the announcer say something about tractor trips to one of the citrus farms and I immediately went to enquire. Five minutes later the family was sitting in a trailer behind farmer Danie Malan's tractor in anticipation for the tour to his farm to start.Along the way Danie stopped to tell us about the young citrus trees that we saw and how the sun can easily burn their…

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20/06/2012
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Slakdop

Ek kan dit nie genoeg sê nie en julle sal dit nog seker baie hoor, maar mense is geneig om altyd vir die groot goed te soek en dan die klein dingetjies te mis.  Klein dingetjies soos 'n eenvoudige slakdop op 'n blaar.

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19/06/2012
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Citrus fruit

Port Elizabeth has two of South Africa's premier export citrus growing areas both within a hour's drive from the city.  The Sundays River Valley to the north around the towns of Addo and Kirkwood and the Gamtoos Valley to the west.  Over the weekend we visited the Citrus Festival in the town of Patensie in the Gamtoos Valley and all along the road one can see the citrus, specially oranges, hanging on the trees.

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19/06/2012
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Patensie Citrus Festival 2012

There is just something special to small town festivals which you don't get in the cities and the Patensie Citrus Festival has that something special.  This past weekend the third annual Citrus Festival took place in the Gamtoos Vally west of Port Elizabeth.  The Gamtoos Valley is very much a farming area and produce both fruit and vegetables with potatoes and oranges being two of the major produce from the valley.  In actual fact the valley is often referred to…

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19/06/2012
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Voortrekkermonument

Die monument wat seker die naaste aan die hart van meeste Afrikaners in Suid-Afrika is is die Voortrekker Monument net buite Pretoria.  Die veertig meter hoë monument is in 1949 voltooi en is gebou ter ere van die Voortrekkers wat die Kaapkolonie vanaf 1838 verlaat het en noord na die Vrystaat, die ou Transvaal (vandag Gauteng) en Natal (KwaZulu Natal) met al hulle besittings op ossewaens getrek het. 

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18/06/2012
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Fresh fruit and veg

On Saturday morning I loaded the family into the car and headed out to the Gamtoos Valley west of Port Elizabeth for the annual Patensie Citrus Festival.  There were a couple of reasons for our little outing the first and foremost being the fact that I loaded a boot full of fresh fruit and vegetables for a fraction of what I would have paid for it in a supermarket in the city.  Plus it was absolutely farm fresh.  The Gamtoos Valley…

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18/06/2012
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Shark Rock Pier in HDR

I've never used the HDR effect on any of my photo.  Some people over use it but making all their pics HDR although it does enhance some pictures beautifully.  My main reason though is because I don't have Photoshop.  Over the weekend I discovered that Picasa does have a HDR effect button (don't know how I missed it before) so I decided to try it out on a picture I took of Shark Rock Pier in Port Elizabeth last week.   

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18/06/2012
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Coega IDZ aerial

The last of the pictures I snapped returning to Port Elizabeth recently was of the Coega Industrial Development Zone.  The Coega Harbour is visible on the right and Motherwell on the left.

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16/06/2012