Eastern Cape

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Port Elizabeth Airshow 2008

Today we had the annual Port Elizabeth Airshow. It is one of the big events on the events calender here in town and have participation from the South African Airforce, Acrobatic teams, Police and Rescue aircraft as well as private aircraft. All the funds raised through the event goes to the MTR Smit Children's Home. There were tons of people today and even though the winds blew a bit, the show went on and it was awesome. Now I'm not…

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25/10/2008
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The Colchester Dunefields

The village of Colchester is nestled on the banks of the Sundays River, about 35km outside Port Elizabeth. Starting at Colchester (west of the Sundays River Mouth) heading east is the Alexandria Dunefields. These are reputed to be the largest coastal dune field in the Southern Hemisphere and the second largest in the world. The western part is locally known as the Colchester Dunefields and can only be reached with a boat by cruising down the river and landing on…

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24/10/2008
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Traditional Dancers at Kwantu

On my recent trip accompanying the Chinese Travel Services delegation around Cape Town and more importantly the Port Elizabeth area, one of our overnight stops was Kwantu Private Game Reserve. Kwantu is one of the only game reserves in our area that offers visitors a traditional dance performance as part of the stay at the reserve. The dance group comes from a nearby town and it is great to see the reserve owners supporting such a group. Here the group…

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21/10/2008
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Boardwalk’s Oriental Village at night

We went for dinner at the Chinese restaurant at the Boardwalk Casino and Entertainment Complex on the Port Elizabeth beachfront the other night. It was a gorgeous evening and the lights from the Oriental Village at the Boardwalk look specially appealing. I never go anywhere without my camera, so piep piep, click.I've done a post about the Boardwalk before. It can be seen here:http://fireflyafrica.blogspot.com/2008/07/boardwalk-casino-entertainment-complex.html

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20/10/2008
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Donkin Reserve lit up

When I went to visit my sister in hospital the other night to see my new niece, I drove by the Donkin Reserve and had to stop to take this pic. The moon was beautiful in the sky and the floodlights on the lighthouse made it a pretty sight. I have posted a day pic of the Donkin Reserve before here: http://fireflyafrica.blogspot.com/2008/07/pe-monuments-1.htmlI found that the pic wasn't exactly what I wanted it to be. I also tried to take one…

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18/09/2008
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donkin sunrise

The flagpole in front of the Donkin Lighthouse and Pyramid, at sunrise. To the left in the distance is the Brick Campanile, erected in honour of the 1820 settlers.

18 Comments
12/09/2008
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Coral Aloe on Oukop

Coral Aloe is one of the many aloe species found in South Africa. Unlike most other aloe species, the coral aloe does not have thorny or spiky leaves. These aloes are in full bloom at the moment and in some areas in the Karoo the fields of aloe looks awesome at the moment. This coral aloe is growing on Oukop in Cradock.

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20/08/2008
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British Settlers – Settling down

After my first British Settlers post Ann had a couple of questions which I will hopefully answer today. The British public was invited to apply to come down to the Cape Colony. Because of the hard times back in England, nearly 100 000 people showed interest out of which 4 500 were selected. The Settlers came in parties and each party was allocated a farm. For this and the seed and implements they had to pay a deposit.Most of the…

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19/08/2008
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Karoo cottages at moonlight

Ok, so its not the second installment of the Settler story yet, but that will still come. Last Thursday I took the step up from my compact digital camera and bought myself a new camera. Ok, so the budget does not allow for a professional camera with different lenses, but it did allow a Fujifilm Finepix S8000 with 8 megapixels and 18x optical zoom. I took it along to Cradock for our weekend away and here follows the first post…

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18/08/2008
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British Settlers – The journey

Yesterday I said that I will do a couple of posts about the 1820 British Settlers, so here is part 1. I will keep the info short, because if I have to get my teeth into it, I will go on and on.Before 1820, Port Elizabeth was the eastern end of the Cape Colony. To the east lived the indigenous black people of the area, namely the Xhosa. The colonial government got worried that they may attack the colony and…

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13/08/2008