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Zebra at university

After yesterday's post on the Grysbok Nature Reserve tour, Peter Betts made a comment on my Facebook page regarding the reserve.  Peter, who has a deep found love for nature, lives right on the edge of the reserve in the suburb of Summerstrand and commented on how interesting a trip it is.  He highlighted something that I didn't mention which are the Khoisan shell middens in the reserve.  He also mentioned how he loves hearing the zebras calling in the…

6 Comments
17/01/2012
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Montagu War Memorial

I've said it before and I will say it again and again and again (every time I find another one).  Just about every town has a war memorial.  Click to see those in Knysna and Mossel Bay which I've blogged about before.  Driving around Montagu I was looking for interesting places and stumbled upon the Montagu War Memorial remembering those from the town who fell during the Anglo Boer War, WWI and WWII.  I'm not a war junkie so I…

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17/01/2012
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Grysbok Reserve tour

Alan Fogarty of Alan Tours does a very informative tour of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University's Grysbok Nature Reserve.  Usually the tours are conducted in an open 4x4, but on the day we went the weather was a bit iffy and he took us in his closed vehicle.  We stopped a couple of times during the tour and Alan showed us the indigenous dune vegetation and fynbos as well as the plants that the Khoisan used for medicinal and other purposes.  The…

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16/01/2012
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Montagu NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church)

The little town of Montagu in the Western Cape truly is a gem of a town with beautiful old buildings, lots of history, fruit, mountains and nature all around.  Montagu was founded in 1851 on the farm Uitvlucht.  The town was named after John Montagu, the British Secretary of the Cape, who was responsible for the building of the Cogmans Kloof Pass that opened up the town for passing trade.  One of the most significant buildings in the town is the…

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16/01/2012
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Grysbok Nature Reserve

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University's South Campus (previously the University of Port Elizabeth main campus) is very unique in that it is the only university campus in South Africa wholly situated inside a nature reserve.  The campus covers 830 ha and was declared a Private Nature Reserve in 1983.  The reserve is dominated by the St Francis Dune Thicket and fynbos vegetation.  The vegetation is highly threatened due to agricultural clearing and coastal development and the NMMU Nature Reserve, also called the…

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15/01/2012
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Aya’s garden

In yesterday's post I wrote about Aya's Ceramic Studio in New Brighton.  Visiting Aya's studio one immediately realises how artistic she is.  Her studio, house and garden is one big exhibition area for her art with ceramic pieces scattered and placed all over.

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14/01/2012
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Aya’s Ceramic Studio

A lot of artists like to settle somewhere close to the coast, in the mountains, a forest or a little town in the Karoo to draw inspiration from their environment to channel into their art.  Then there are people like Ayanda (Aya) Mji who lives in the heart of the New Brighton township of Port Elizabeth and who draws her inspiration from the African landscape around her.  She uses animals, birds and even her dreams to create some of the most interesting ceramic art…

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13/01/2012
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Ronnie’s Sex Shop

Let's fall right in the door and explain before there are *gasps* and threats of blog boycotts because I'm posting about a sex shop (sic).  If you are a South African you may be familiar with Ronnie's Sex Shop on Route 62 near the town of Barrydale in the Klein Karoo.  If you are from elsewhere and have never heard of Ronnie's, then listen up.Some years ago a guy called Ronnie decided to fix up a building next to the popular…

12 Comments
13/01/2012
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Available here

This township entrepreneur's shop (sic) is situated at Njoli Square in Kwazakhele.  I asked one of my colleagues to help me out with a bit of translation for the Xhosa words I didn't know.  She wasn't sure what Ntintile means but her assumption is that it's the guy's surname and that Rainbow Ntintile would be the name of the shop.  The rest of the sign says: "Chips (that you know), biscuits (that you know as well), isonka (bread), bread (wonder why he…

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11/01/2012