I wonder how many people driving the Swartkops road on a regular basis don't even notice the flamingos anymore. I think its awesome to have so many flamingos on the Swartkoms estuary right here close to the city. I walked the Flamingo Trail recently and snapped this pic of the flamingos taking off as we started to get too close.
The Coastal Fynbos Trail in Schoenmakerskop is probably one of the slightly lesser known trails around Port Elizabeth. Thanks to the PE Geocaching series which created the letters PE as geoart on the Geocache map, a few more people have set off to explore the trail lately. The trail is a circular trail and covers about 7 km on the eastern side of the village, starting at Sappershoek. The first section of the trail is an inland route through the coastal fynbos…
I recently had an outing along the Fynbos Trail near Schoenmakerskop with a friend while planting some geocaches and snapped this picture of a bush of flowers. Not exactly sure what it was or if its even supposed to grow naturally on the Wildside. I just thought it makes for a nice scene.
The Swartkops Nature Reserve along with the Aloe Reserve protects the northern escarpment of the Swartkops Estuary. It plays an important part in the protection of Valley Thicket, also known as Valley Bushveld, along the estuary and is quite a good birding spot. The reserve is one of the lesser know reserves in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro with not many people visiting it, but the good folk of the Zwartkops Conservancy does do guided hikes along the Flamingo Trail through the…
Although most people do the Sacramento Trail as a straight forward out and back along the coastal route, there are two very different routes possible. The alternative route heads slightly inland from the cannon through fynbos before heading along the top of the vegetated sand dunes towards Sardinia Bay.
In 1647 the Portuguese galleon Sacramento ran aground between present day Schoenmakerskop and Sardinia Bay with 72 survivors reaching the beach and only nine making it all the way to Delagoa Bay (Maputo) in Mozambique. That is a distance of 1,300 km on foot. The ship carried a shipment of cannons and these spent the next 300 odd years on the ocean floor until they were salvaged in 1977. 40 bronze cannons were brought up and one of those cannons still stand in Schoenies at the…
The Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve is looking stunning at the moment with loads of Pin Cushions and King Proteas in flower. We went for a short walk through the reserve and eventually Drama Princess and I fell so far behind the Damselfly and Chaos Boy cause she kept on stopping to look at flowers and ask questions about them and other things we saw. I didn't mind though because it gives me a good excuse to snap some pictures as well. …
I was very fortunate to go on a guided walk along the Flamingo Trail next to the Swartkops Estuary the other day and got some great flamingo sightings along the way. After posting the view of the flamingo's from the top of the hill I thought I'll follow it up with a picture taken from the side of the river of the flamingo's wading along.
One of my favourite natural things about winter is the fact that it's when the aloes bloom. And if you can add to it a beautiful view, like this one of the Swartkops River and the ocean from the Aloe Reserve in Bluewater Bay, then even better. Today is also Tata Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday. Happy birthday Madiba!
I often wonder how many people realise how many beautiful open spaces Port Elizabeth has. Some of them are natural open spaces like the Baakens Valley which includes Dodds Farm and Settlers Park, Cape Recife Nature Reserve, Sardinia Bay Nature Reserve and Maitland Nature Reserve. More formal open spaces like St Georges Park, Victoria Park and the Kings Beach lake area gives one a place to go for a walk where you are surrounded by paved paths and gardens. This spot with the…