Ironkids

This is a big weekend for Port Elizabeth.... the Ironman SA contest is being held here, and the beachfront is all decked out for the occasion. It could not have been a more perfect day for the first stage, which was the corporate and Ironkids events. Here is Duncan, who we met walking along the promenade, proudly wearing his well earned medal. Tonight the beachfront was buzzing with people and activity, and a brilliant sunset greeted our visitors. Tomorrow is…

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Trinity House

We'll come back to 7 Castle Hill, but today we wanted to share pictures of another very old house in Central which has been maintained in its original state.This is Trinity House, and it is about 30 years newer than 7 Castle Hill, having been built around 1858. It was recently bought by Amanda and Karl Wellmann, who have done a wonderful job of lovingly restoring it, and turning it into a guesthouse.Here you can see one of the bedrooms,…

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Moon + Shadow

I'm sure blogland is going to be awash with images of the latest total eclipse of the moon.... but anyway here is a sepia shot of how it looked in PE at 3.48 am on Thursday.

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The Bubonic Plague…

Continuing the Richmond Hill story from yesterday (and if you are new to this thread, go back to the post called Places of Worship #6 for the background history), the area known as the Strangers Location and the lands owned by the London Missionary Society had an outbreak of Bubonic Plague in 1903, and were burned down. The residents were relocated to the Red Location in New Brighton, about 6km away as the crow flies, so naturally getting to work…

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Lame little fun fair

Every year around Christmas, the kids wait with excitement for the fun fair to arrive and set up on the dunes at the edge of the Kings Beach car park. It used to be quite impressive, with roller coasters, a big wheel, wall of death and pirate ship which flipped right over, but as the years have gone by it seems to have gone into a decline. This year it was quite a sad and dismal sight to see the…

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It’s Official….Summer is here!

Every year, on the Public Holiday we have in South Africa on 16th December, the City Council throws a party on the beachfront, complete with firework display. It is the official "Opening of the Season" to celebrate summer and welcome holiday visitors to our city. For the past 30 years that we have lived here, we have studiously avoided it, because of the crowds, parking and traffic issues etc. We sometimes went to high viewpoints and saw a bit of…

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Award and Red Location Museum

Ok, this just wouldn't be a city daily blog if I didn't show you this morning's newspaper headline.....I mean that is quite an achievement for a town whose nickname was, until recently, the ghost on the coast!In the 50s and 60s PE developed as the hub of the SA motor industry (very punny),but in the late 70s many of the motor manufacturers and parts manufactures relocated, and the city went through a terrible economic depression. When we came here to…

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it was a dark and stormy night………

Last Sunday, a storm blew over. I was trying to capture the lightning, which is unusual in PE, where our rain tends to be of the drizzly cold variety rather than heavy and tropical, but kept missing it. However, the gale force winds can be seen by the way the trees blurred during the time exposure, while the rest remained steady. Because this picture is wide, it has reduced a lot on blogger, and I am still trying to figure…

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Bonus Friday Post…

I know this is meant to be A photo A day, (as in 1 each day!) but I just had to pop this extra one in, because things are cooking here today, and tomorrow is the 1st day of the month, which means it is theme day, so tomorrow will be a BRIDGE picture.The SA Proteas Cricket team played the NZ black caps here today, in fact as I am typing this, the match has just ended, with New Zealand…

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