This is a bit of an unusual view of Shark Rock Pier. I know it's a view a lot of people have seen before, but if you zoom in with the camera over a distance this angle puts Kings Beach and the city centre right behind the pier.
If you know a bit about Port Elizabeth's history then you will know that at one stage there was an obelisk standing on Market Square in front of the City Hall. The obelisk is known as The Prince of Wales Obelisk and was brought to South Africa by the founder of the Eastern Province Herald, John Paterson to be placed on the grave of his partner, George Kemp. The Kemp family decided that it was too elaborate to place on the…
The Campanile stand 52 meters tall and to get to the top you have to climb up 204 steps which will take you to the half circle windows above the clocks. Looking at that you would think it there wouldn't be much opportunity to look down (and not in a bad way) on the Campanile. That is unless you are standing on top of the lighthouse on the Donkin Reserve. The Campanile is currently closed for renovation.
The story of Prester John is a mysterious one. In some circles he was believed to be a descendant of the Three Wise Men, some believed he was a crusader-era Christian king based in Ethiopia or possibly a high-born Mongol from the time of Genghis Khan. Then there were those who said that he watched over Holy Grail, never growing old but wiser and wiser as the years went by. Whoever this mythical king-priest Prester John was, it was the quest of the Portuguese explorers not…
The pathway winding its way up the Donkin Reserve from the back of the Opera House to the Great Flag wasn't just made like this by accident. The winding path represents a 1994 election queue winding its way towards the election box. An addition to the Election Queue path is over 3000 crosses left by youth of the city during the official opening of Route 67 and representing future votes in a democratic South Africa. This is the Election Queue as seen…
One of my absolute favorite historic buildings is the old Public Library across the road from the City Hall and Market Square. The building was built in 1901 with the façade constructed in England and shipped to Port Elizabeth in numbered blocks to be reassembled in front of the building. The statue of Queen Victoria was added in 1903 and completed the picture very nicely.
Some know it as the Settlers Freeway and some just call it by its number, the M4 freeway. But whatever whoever calls it, this is what the freeway cutting between the city and Algoa Bay looks like from the top of the Campanile.
A couple of nights ago I attended the Eastern Cape provincial Lilizela Tourism Awards at the Feather Market Centre. Most of us parked on Market Square and on my way back to the car somewhere between 11 and midnight I snapped this picture of the historic Public Library with Queen Vic in the spotlight.
Climbing the 204 steps to the top of the Campanile one would think that you would be in one of the highest spots in the city centre (this is no chirp at the fact that PE doesn't have a lot of high rise buildings), but once you are up there you realise that the Donkin Lighthouse up on the Donkin Reserve is actually higher. Its a lighthouse who's light was supposed to be seen out to see after all.
I got to be on Pasella on SABC 2 for the first time in 2009 when they were in town to film an insert on the Donkin Heritage Trail. At the time I worked for Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism and got to do the insert with my colleague and good friend Sadie Issacs. We met presenter Vicky Davis and the team at the Donkin Reserve and ended up shooting around the reserve, on the lighthouse, around City Hall and Market Square, at…