Eastern Cape

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Tsitsikamma National Park

The Tsitsikamma National Park is definitively one of my absolute favorite places on the Garden Route. It is a awesome park with such contrast and natural beauty, its hard to find anything better anywhere else. Forests, towering cliffs, black rock coastline, white waves, blue ocean, streams, beaches... I can go on and on. The park is a very popular stop for tourists travelling the Garden Route. I have done several posts on it on my other blog. These can be…

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27/06/2009
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Tsitsikamma Forest

The Tsitsikamma (Khoisan word meaning "Place of many waters") is the official start of the Garden Route. The Garden Route is one of South Africa's most popular tourist routes and follow the south coast from the Tsitsikamma to Mossel Bay. For travel and tourist purposes a Garden Route tour will take you from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town or the other way around..The Tsitsikamma forest is a indigenous forest which are highly protected by law. It consist of indigenous trees…

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26/06/2009
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Kouga Dam

At the top of the Gamtoos Valley one would find the Kouga Dam, one of Port Elizabeth's three main water supply dams. The Kouga Dam was the first double arch dam to be built in South Africa. Other than for urban use, the dam is also the main supplier of irrigation water to the Gamtoos Valley. The pic was taken a little while ago when the dam last overflowed.More information on the dam can be found here.

8 Comments
20/06/2009
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Valley of Desolation

The Valley of Desolation is situated just outside the town of Graaff Reinet. It can be found in the Camdeboo National Park which provides the visitor with insights into the unique landscape and ecosystem of the Karoo, not to mention awesome scenic beauty. The Karoo was formed hundreds of millions of years ago and in some places, dolerite form jointed pillars. The best examples of which are found in the Valley of Desolation where erosion of the softer sedimentary beds…

12 Comments
16/06/2009
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St Andrews Clock Tower

St Andrews College in the town of Grahamstown was founded by Anglican Archbishop Armstrong in 1855. Much of the early architecture was based on stone, one of these being the Clock Tower – a memorial to old boys who fell to the Great War. St Andrews is one of 4 South African schools who have the right to elect a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford each year.

4 Comments
09/06/2009
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St Mary’s Cemetery

The St Mary's Cemetery is probably the oldest formal cemetery in Port Elizabeth and can be found close to the city centre. It is situated near the mouth of the Baakens River on the banks of what used to be the fresh water lagoon after which Algoa Bay was named. I did a post in The Firefly Photo Files a little while ago with some more pictures of the cemetery.

9 Comments
29/05/2009
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Shipwreck canons

The Port Elizabeth Museum at Bayworld has a great collection of artifacts from shipwrecks found around Algoa Bay on show in the Ship Wreck Hall. The centre piece of the display is a number of canons and ship guns that has been recovered over the years.

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18/05/2009
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Dinosaur hall

We visited the Port Elizabeth Museum at Bayworld today in celebration of International Museum Day. I love museums. To me its like an exploration every time I enter one. I also have many fond memories of the PE Museum and the countless visits there when I was still small. Not much has changed over the years at the PE Museum, but I still get excited when I do get the chance to go and visit. Over the next few days…

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17/05/2009
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Spar Ladies Race

This morning the Spar Ladies Race took place on the beachfront. It consist of 5km and 10km races. The Port Elizabeth leg of the race is one of the biggest in the country with nearly 10 000 entries. Most of the participants take part in the 5km which is mostly a fun walk with big and small as well as young and old taking part while the 10km is a much more serious race with some of the best runners…

2 Comments
02/05/2009