A 4am departure on a road trip to Johannesburg meant that I was just south of the Karoo town of Cradock when the sun started to lick at the horizon. It wasn't long for the clouds to be on fire and I couldn't help but to pull over to take a picture with my phone which I Instagrammed immediately. The Karoo always has something breathtaking to offer visitors on a plate.
Eersterivier in the Tsitsikamma is a beautiful piece of coastline with stunning swimming spots between the rock. If you do decided to hit the ocean itself you have to be careful of the rip currents created by all the reefs and rocks as indicated by this sign I photographed at sunset.
Nieu-Bethesda in the Karoo is one of those interesting little towns that one just can't afford to miss. Home to the Owl House, Kitching Fossil Centre, guesthouses, restaurants, a micro brewery and so much more yet the town (or should I perhaps call it a village?) doesn't have a petrol station, atm or even a tar road. Every corner offers something new or interesting or, in this case, old and interesting.
A trip up to Nieu-Bethesda a week or so ago gave me the opportunity to detour into the little village of Wolwefontein between Uitenhage and Jansenville. There really wasn't that much to see but the old hotel sign behind a sweet thorn tree made for an interesting photograph.
Last year the first ever Color Run in South Africa took place in Port Elizabeth, so it was appropriate for the city to stage the first South African one in 2014 again. I got an invite from Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism to come and participate in the event along with the family and on a slightly cold and wet Sunday morning headed down to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. I wasn't sure how a powder paint event would go down…
A road trip to East London from Port Elizabeth along the N2 via Grahamstown. The historic Fort Peddie in the town of Peddie dating back to the Frontier Wars. A geocache. These three things added up to a great solo adventure a couple of weeks ago. I've been eyeing the cache at Fort Peddy for a while now but a trip to East London for a meeting was the excuse to do it. This fort was built in 1835 on the…
Driving along the N2 through the Tsitsikamma you have to pass over the Storms River Bridge with most visitors stopping at the Petroport for a view of the bridge from the view site or into the gorge from the bridge itself. To get to the walkway on the southern side of the bridge you have to first go under it giving you this slightly different view of it.
For my last post in this week's series on the Tsitsikamma I featuring a thing and not an activity. The Big Tree is probably one of the best known landmarks in the area and a very popular stop for tourists. An easy 500 meter boardwalk takes visitors to one of the giants of the forest. I haven't been to the Big Tree for a couple of years and one of the things I noticed while there was that the signs no…
The Wild Coast was one of my last two unexplored Eastern Cape frontiers (the other one is the North Eastern Cape around Rhodes) and I got to do a trip through and explored for two days (more is needed as there is so much I need to go back to see) recently. One of the things I hoped most to see were cows on the beach. Yes, you heard me right. Cows enjoying the sunshine and sand of the Wild Coast beaches. …
Geocaching is about so much more than using multi billion dollar spy satellite technology to find hidden Tupperware. Its also about exploration, going to and discovering places you may not otherwise have gone to. One of these is the highest narrow gauge railway bridge in the world spanning the Van Stadens Gorge outside Port Elizabeth. Years ago when the Apple Express was still running it used to stop before the bridge and passengers could walk across and get a photograph of the train crossing with…