Last Saturday we went for a walk at the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve and followed the River Walk up to the point where you walk under the Van Stadens Bridge. It truly is a sight from below, but I think I'll keep that photo for a second post. The bridge was completed on 12 October 1971 and stretches 198m across the gorge and is 125m at its highest point. The bridge was designed by Italian engineers and the two halves of…
On Sunday we decided to swing by the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve west of Port Elizabeth. The reserve really is one of my favorite nature reserves around the city, but it's also home to a huge amount of Geocaches, some that was still awaiting me to turn them into smileys on my map. There was a drizzle falling all morning so jumping in and out of the car at every cache meant that I was soaked after a while. It…
In a way, walking up Lady's Slipper has become for Port Elizabeth what walking up Lion's Head is for Cape Town. At one stage only a few people did it, but lately it has become a very popular outing. Not very far distance-wise, but a tough cookie as far as terrain. It has been on my "To Do" list for so long and the other day I decided to tackle it with the family in tow. As the trail and…
One of my favorite views around Nelson Mandela Bay. The view of the Van Stadens Bridge from the picnic spot lookout in the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve
Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve's bird hide The 600 ha Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve is located about 35km west of Port Elizabeth. The reserve stretches from the Van Stadens mountain to the coast and its main purpose is to protect the area's unique indigenous Fynbos vegetation. It's always worth popping into the reserve because there's always some type of protea in bloom. But Van Stadens isn't just about vegetation and views of the Van Stadens gorge, it also boasts a birding…
A magnificent King Protea in the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve It's been two years since I've stopped blogging. What I initially intended to be a three week break was extended to two months and then became an indefinite postponement. My mojo was gone. In fact I didn't even take photos anymore. My camera gathered dust and my writing skills became rusty. The last two years have been funny actually. I started losing concentration, thought I developed ADD and frankly, also…
I haven't been to the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve for a few months so I think it's time to swing by again to see what is in flower. This is a picture from a little while ago with Pincushions in flower.
A couple of years ago I got to walk underneath the Van Stadens Bridge for the first time while following one of the trails in the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve in search of a Geocache. A couple of days ago I saw a friend post a similar picture and I decided to go and dig this photo out to post again. Not the usual view of the bridge, is it?
In early December a huge fire swept through the bush on the Wildside in the Schoenmakerskop area. One of the specific spots effected by the fire was the Fynbos Trail that starts next to Sappershoek in Schoenies. I am the cache owner of the PE series of Geocaches that is located along the Fynbos Trail and last Friday Chaos Boy and I headed down to do the trail and some much needed maintenance replacing the caches damaged by the fire.The…
Life returning to the Fynbos Trail at Schoenmakerskop after the devastating fire of late 2016