Eastern Cape - Firefly the Travel Guy

Honesty shop on the stoep

Towards the bottom of Martin Street in the village of Nieu-Bethesda stands a white Karoo house with a blue sign. blue cupboard(on the stoep)honesty shop The two words in the name that caught my eye immediately were "honesty shop". It was peculiar. Interesting. Strangely Karoo Heartland. Definitely worth checking out. On the stoep we found a variety of things. On the right-hand side mostly second-hand and antique items, books and other stuff. Nice and cheap as well. On the left-hand…

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04/11/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

Tracking and double tots at Samara

Rangers are like the cowboys of a game reserve with their game viewing vehicle as their steed, a cap rather than a cowboy hat and bino's at their side in the place of a revolver. But what about the dude sitting on the bonnet jump seat? Is he the Tonto to our Lone Ranger? Who is the guy with the thing in his hand that looks like a tv aerial? What is he supposed to do? Why does he get…

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18/10/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

The canals at St Francis

Manuel de Perestrelo, a Portuguese explorer weighed anchor in a sheltered bay in 1575. He was struck with the natural beauty of what he saw and named it Bahia de Sao Francisca after the Patron Saint of Sailors, St Francis of Assissi. As legend has it, the landward side reminded him of the beautiful cloisters of the 14th Century Gothic monastery of St Francisca, at his hometown of Santareme. Little did he know that over 400 years later a unique village…

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14/10/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

The Cape St Francis Lighthouse

There are 49 lighthouses (according to Wikipedia) along South Africa's 2800 km long coastline. The oldest is the Green Point Lighthouse built in 1824 while the newest one was built at Groenrivier Mouth in the Northern Cape in 1988. I have a thing for lighthouses and wouldn't mind traveling from lighthouse to lighthouse one day when I'm big to be able to tick them all off as visited. The lighthouse at Seal Point in Cape St Francis was complete in…

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21/09/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

Blue Cranes at sunset

As the sun was setting in the west after an amazing game drive at Samara Private Game Reserve near Graaff-Reinet, we stood with gin and tonics in hand enjoying the end of another stunning late winter Karoo Heartland day. Suddenly we heard a noise over a nearby rise. The 'krraaarrr krraaarr’ call of blue cranes. Not one or two, but a flock of at least 60 or 70 coming in to overnight at the nearby waterhole. They first did us…

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07/09/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

A Nieu-Bethesda fossil tour

Many many millions of moons ago the Karoo was an inland sea which over time slowly started to shrink. About 265 million years ago, the Beaufort Group of rocks within the Karoo sequence was beginning to be deposited by massive rivers draining into the shrinking inland Ecca Sea. As these rivers filled the basin with sediment that entombed the remains of land animals that lived around them. This period is known as the Permian Period and took place around 50…

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25/08/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

A Gamtoos Valley outing

The Gamtoos Valley with it's citrus farms, beautiful scenery and interesting little corners is one of our favorite day excursions to just get out of the city for a bit. The advantage is that it is nice and close to Port Elizabeth, so you are in the valley after like only a 40 minute drive. We try to see and do something different every time we go which is probably two or three times a year. Our latest outing produced…

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13/08/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

Nieu-Bethesda valley view

Nieu-Bethesda is a quiet little village. One for contemplation and somewhere you go to find yourself again. There are a few places you can do it during a visit, but one of my favorites is with a flask of coffee and a lunch (breakfast) box filled with rusks up at Mariette se bankie at the Uitkyk. From here you can see the whole valley with the village on the far side and towering Compasberg in the background. Let's keep this…

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10/08/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

Mountainside cycads at Kuzuko

Cycads, or as we know them in Afrikaans, Broodbome, (all Encephalartos species and Stangeria eriopus) are the most threatened plant group in South Africa. They are also one of the most threatened groups of plants in the world. In South Africa almost 70% of our cycad species are threatened with extinction, with four species on the brink of extinction and seven species with fewer than 100 plants left in the wild. In South Africa it is illegal to buy or…

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28/07/2021

Firefly the Travel Guy

Going on a game drive at Kuzuko Lodge

Over the Zuurberg mountains in the southern part of the Eastern Cape's Karoo Heartland lies a place of glory. That bit should actually be written with caps as Kuzuko Lodge's slogan is Place of Glory. Most game reserves are located in a part of the province where lush subtropical thicket vegetation is prevalent which makes Kuzuko different. Wide-open spaces, sparse vegetation, dry climate and often warmer temperatures. Due to this Kuzuko doesn't have big numbers of animals like the other…

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21/07/2021