more havok

Even before the major tsunami type waves that did all the damage on Monday, the seas on Sunday were building up unusually high. On Sunday afternoon we took a stroll along the beachfront (yes, in our case it is "mad dogs and SouthAfricans go out in the freezing gale!") hehe. But we couldn't resist the opportunity to snap away despite fingers so frozen they could barely operate the camera!We have often shown the wonderful wide pristine sands of King's Beach…

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more spring tides….

Continuing our coverage of the spring day havok, the section of the Settlers freeway that runs past Sidon street towards Albany road also took a pounding. Even after the waves had eased up a bit, they were pretty impressive.These are the main railway lines that feed Port Elizabeth, an as you can see it may be a while before normal services resume! A huge concrete section of the breakwater wall was tossed onto the tracks like a lego block by…

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Spring has sprung…..

Usually it would be the sounds of birds chirping hopefully, flowers popping up in happy colourful profusion, winter coats being stored away.... but PE is never a place that can be considered predictable and boring, so on our spring day yesterday, we had a big surprise. Our coastline was pounded by Tsunami type waves, railway lines covered with huge chunks of the concrete breakwater wall, businesses flooded, and the freeway closed most of the day due to waves crashing over…

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Aftermath of the Fire

Last week the Greatermans building in the city centre burned down in a fire that started in a neighbouring warehouse. This week the fire department was still busy securing the ruins and ensuring that there is not another flare up. It is amazing how, in such a short time, what seems like a strong and lasting structure can be reduced to rubble.

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Hot off the press….

......excuse the pun. We already did a post today on the new wordpress blog, but ironically were unable to upload the bitmap kindly sent sent to us by our friend Louise Eksteen (a noted photographic artist who has offered to supply us with pics.) However, as I am in Capetown and uploading from my cellphone, blogger is behaving delightfully! So here is an image of the fire in Port Elizabeth yesterday, in which the old Greatermans building was burned. In…

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On the dry dock… happy birthday Madiba

An outing of a group of artists to the Algoa Bay Yacht Club yesterday yielded all sorts of interesting subjects (for painting and photography!) Duncan Stewart was drawn (hehe) to the view of Free Spirit getting some t.l.c. on the dry dock.And dry dock is perhaps a fitting way to lead into the significance of this day.... because our loved and highly respected past President, Nelson Mandela, turns 90 today. He may be in dry dock now, retired and needing…

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Burnt Out

Such a shame... another historic cottage in Port Elizabeth, neglected by the owner and rented out to Nigerian drug dealers, has burned down. GRRRRRRRR. Another little bit of our heritage needlessly lost. I featured this house in my "Now and Then" series a while ago, you can see how it looked recently and in the 1880s.

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Threatened Species

There are old electrical substations like this scattered all over the city. We originally photographed this for the 'mural' monthly theme, but ended up using something different. The building may be dirty, but it is also in danger! The oil-based curcuit breakers are not designed to be switched on and off regularly. Each area in the city has a daily 2 hour power outage that is part of the load shedding schedule imposed on us due to the complete ineptitude…

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Shark Rock Pier #5

It's been a while since we posted a pic in the Shark Rock Pier Series, but we are about to make up for it.........this weekend she was all dressed up and ready for the big event.... Ironman SA started on Hobie Beach, and the pier was crammed with spectators. (You can see a whole lot moreironman images here and also there is an overflow post of pier photos here.)

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Ironman SA

Yesterday we told you about Ironman SA, here are the 1600 swimmers waiting for the starting gun at 7am today. ......and they're off, for their 3.8km swim which is the first stage of the event.As there was a bank of clouds over the sea, the sun was not yet up. The pier was thronged with crowds waiting to cheer the competitors on, while the press hovered overhead. We will post lots more pix of the event on our personal blogs…

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