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.
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12/09/2008
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.
20/08/2008
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…
19/08/2008
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…
18/08/2008
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…
13/08/2008
The mermaids purse on Cape St Francis beach
In yesterday's post I showed the Seal Point lighthouse in Cape St Francis. I decided to stick to the little village for today's post, and sommer post two totally different pic for the measure. Cape St Francis started out as a little fishing village in the 1950's. Today its still small and charming and a very popular holiday and surfing spot. A couple of months ago we went to camp in Cape St Francis for the weekend and it was…
10/08/2008
Storm front moving in
The area about 65 - 120km west of Port Elizabeth is known as the Kouga (Place of many fat animals). The coastal towns of the Kouga is situated around the Bay of St Francis. Included in the area is the surfing and shell town of Jeffreys Bay, the very upmarket marina canal village of St Francis Bay and then the western point of the Cape St Francis. At the point is the Seal Point Lighthouse built in 1878. It used…
09/08/2008
PE Monuments 2
Today I want to continue showing off some of better known monuments and historic buildings in Port Elizabeth. Situated on Market Square in the historic heart of the city is the Port Elizabeth City Hall. Completed in the 1862 and with the clock tower added on in 1883, the building burned down in 1977 and was restored to its former glory shortly after. The tower sticking out behind belongs to the Old Post Office, opened in 1900, while the cross…
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21/07/2008
PE Monuments 1
Port Elizabeth is a city with a rich historical and cultural background. It has many monuments going back to the colonial days as well as some more recent ones. Todays I want to show of a couple of our better known monuments.Fort Frederick is the oldest building in the city. It was built by the British in 1799 to defend the Bay from French invasion and still overlooks the Port Elizabeth harbour.The Pyramid or Donkin Memorial is situated on the…
20/07/2008
Blue Flag Beaches
See that I have been showing off some of our beaches so far, I decided to stick to the topic today and show you two more.Humewood Beach is the oldest Blue Flag beach in South Africa. It is a very family friendly beach situated next to the old slipway pillars. Before the construction of the harbour in the 1930's, the Humewood slipway was used to repair boats. Boats sailed in between the pillars before being pulled up the slipway. Today…
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19/07/2008