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Spring has sprung and the weather gods are teasing us with summer some days and reminding us that winter isn’t over on the others. September is tourism month and what easier way to celebrate it than sitting down with a cup of coffee and exploring the Eastern Cape through the Firefly the Travel Guy’s Encounter the Eastern Cape Travel Mailers?

This month we look at the following:

• Significant events at the historic St George’s Park Cricket Ground

• Explore the Plaatbos Forest next to Storms River Village

• Learn more about the Norvalspont Concentration Camp site.

• The massive sand dunes of the Alexandria dunefield

• Have you ever heard of the Richmond House Museum in Port Alfred

If there is something that you would like to see featured in our monthly travel mailer or have any suggestions, please drop us an email at jonker@fireflyafrica.co.za

St Georges Park Cricket Ground

Did you know that the St Georges Park Cricket Ground in Port Elizabeth is the oldest test stadium in South Africa and has chalked up many firsts over the years?

St George’s hosted the first cricket Test outside England or Australia in 1888-89 (England winning by eight wickets)

It also staged South Africa’s first rugby international, also against England, in 1891.

Other firsts include being the home of the Port Elizabeth Cricket Club, the oldest club in South Africa (1843), the venue for the first women’s international Test in South Africa (1960), the last Test before South Africa’s expulsion from world cricket and the first home test win (over India) after readmission.

Another interesting fact is that the weather vane in the stadium is a dragon.

Plaatbos Forest next to Storms River Village

The Plaatbos Forest section of the Garden Route (Tsitsikamma) National Park is located right down the road from Storms River Village. The nice thing about Plaatbos is that it’s an easy stroll from your accommodation and offers free access to the forest. Plaatbos has various marked trails (green – 5km, red – 7.5km and yellow – 8km) through the forest or you can just walk or cycle along the historic Storms River Pass down to the low water bridge.

Walking through Plaatbos is more than just enjoying the indigenous forest with its trees and streams. If you keep your eyes open you will spot the little things. New growth on a fern, a little frog in a stream, fungus and mushrooms growing under a dead branch, a butterfly making its way from flower to flower or a Knysna Loerie overhead in the treetops. On the way down the pass, you can see the old elephant trail that the pass was built on as well as some of the original stonework done when the pass was built in the early 1880s.

Norvalspont Concentration Camp Memorial

The Anglo Boer War (1899 – 1902) is one of the big turning points in South Africa’s history. One of the most significant things that happened during the Anglo Boar War was that it was the first time that concentration camps were used anywhere in the world. The concentration camps were created to house the victims of the scorched earth policies introduced by Milner and Kitchener, where the farmhouses of the Boer farmers were destroyed to prevent them from being used to provide support to the Boer Commandos.

Norvalspont Concentration Camp, near present-day Gariep Dam, was established in 1900 and was seen as a model camp. It was much better off than most other camps even though conditions were still very bad. The camp was situated on the banks of the Orange River which meant that there was at least enough water and firewood available but it was not as if Norvalspont lacked the problems of the other camps. On the contrary, the measles epidemic struck early and was followed by scarlet fever and diphtheria.  Families also poured in without warning and tents and blankets often ran out. 

At times there were over three thousand people housed at Norvalspont, and by the end of the war 412 men, women and children had died in the camp. The names of those who died in the Norvalpont Concentration Camp are recorded on a memorial on the site to honour their memory. Out of the four plaques of names, three are all children under 15 years old.

Alexandria Dunefield

The Alexandria Dunefield is the largest and least degraded coastal dunefield in the southern hemisphere. It’s also considered to be the best example in South Africa of the bare coastal dune field, often referred to as a dune sea. It offers a unique and extraordinary wilderness resource that only a few other landscapes in South Africa provide and imparts an unique experience of solitude, infinity and spatial freedom.

The Alexandria dune field has a surface area of about 15 800ha, stretching over 80km in length from Sundays River Mouth to the Bushmans River. The dunes are an average of about two and a half kilometres wide with a width of up to 5km in places. Some of the dunes are about 140 meters high. The dune system is extremely dynamic with sand being continually blown in, building up and traversing inland. Some 375,000 cubic tons of sand are deposited into the dune fields each year.

The best ways to see the dunes are on the two-day Alexandria Hiking Trail or by visiting the Colchester sand dunes at the mouth of the Sundays River on a cruise with Addo Cruises and Sand Sledding.

Port Alfred’s Richmond House Museum

The Richmond House Museum in Port Alfred is a magnificent 7-acre viewsite property overlooking the Kowie River mouth and East Beach, with a fascinating 180-year-old history. The museum was previously a servants’ quarters and is the replica ‘Castle’ building. 

The museum, decorated in Edwardian style, is housed in the renovated staff quarters built in 1948. It houses, inter alia, a replica of The Castle’s original front door, fireplaces, light fittings and some historical paintings. Thirteen information boards trace the Cock family story and the many changes to the Castle that came with successive owners (the Potes, Ohlssons, and the Kelly-Gemmill family).  Outside are two naval cannons, a millstone, kitchen sink and both parts of a sneezewood flagstaff.

The Hon William Cock, an 1820 Cornish Settler and entrepreneur, decided to convert the Kowie Estuary into a port to help bring prosperity to the Eastern Frontier. He built his home on the Kowie west bank hill in 1840, named it Richmond House and added crenellations to the facade. It soon became known as Cock’s Castle. In later decades the Pote family, the Ohlsson brewers and then Tom Kelly each owned and altered the Castle, in turn.

By 1999 Richmond House was deteriorating and it changed hands for the last time. Following protracted negotiations with heritage authorities, a permit was finally granted allowing demolition. Everything that could be salvaged from the Castle has been displayed in the museum which also doubles as a music room for intimate performances.

The Museum may be visited by appointment only; entrance by donation.

Contact Sue at 082 456 7437