port elizabeth

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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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02/09/2008
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Monthly Theme Day: Sister Cities

Port Elizabeth seems to be part of a large family, and has a few sister cities, including Tainan in Taiwan, and Jacksonville, Florida as well as Palm Desert, California,in USA!The one I have always felt was the closest relation is Gothenberg in Sweden. When Panoramio first started on Google Earth, and there was a small community of photographers who all corresponded and knew each other, a guy called Andreas Elmquist from Gothenberg used to post pix, and I was putting…

5 Comments
01/09/2008
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trees under threat

These 2 wonderful old members of the ficus family have grown at the end of Main Road Walmer for as long as anyone here can remember, and are really well known landmarks. As the system of roads surrounding them is being constantly upgraded, and shopping centres developed all around, they are looking sadder and sadder. Despite the watering they receive from tenants of Fig Tree Village, which was named after them, they are looking much sparser than they did several…

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28/08/2008
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skyline from sea

The skyline of PE is very different, now, to the bleak hills rising out of sand dunes which confronted the 1820 settlers. This is the view as you are entering the harbour and approaching the yacht basin. The early forefathers were responsible for many of the striking features which are so familiar on the horizon. The Donkin Lighthouse and Pyramid are real icons of PE, as are the Campanile and many of the old Church steeples. To the Right on…

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24/08/2008
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wildlife in the suburbs

If you get bored with the miniture trains, you can always go game viewing. These guinea fowl have taken "ownership" of the local neighbourhood and are a delight to watch.

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23/08/2008
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Miniature Railway

At Londt Park in Sunridge Park is a delightful miniature railway, complete with station, overhead pedestrian bridge and tunnel.It is a great place for children's birthday parties (and the accompanying adults seem to enjoy it too!)

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22/08/2008
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This place could do with a re-birth

This tatty looking building (admittedly made worse by the fact that it was photographed through the windscreen on a wet and miserable day recently) is where a huge number of Port Elizabethans (including our son) were born... it is the old maternity wing of the Provincial Hospital. Definitely in need of some tlc, but given the abysmal state of the Health Department in this province, I imagine it is low on the list of priorities.

3 Comments
21/08/2008
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All fresh and new…..

Until recently these were very run down houses in Richmond Hill. I love the new colour scheme on the dark one! And as you can see, these properties enjoy superb views across the bay.

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20/08/2008
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The Mosque that stopped a freeway

This is Pier Street Mosque, now marooned on a patch of lawn between the harbour and the freeway.After forcibly removing the residents of South end in the early 70s, even the all-powerful Apartheid Government had to yield to a higher power over this.... and so our settlers freeway has a truncated offramp hanging in space, because they were not allowed to go ahead and demolish this mosque, which is considered to be on holy ground.

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19/08/2008
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Elaine Hopewell Gallery

We seem to keep popping back to Parliament Street and vicinity, which is not too surprising because it is home to some delightful old buildings. This is actually in Ivy Terrace, but is seen from Parliament Street. From this gracious old house, Elaine Hopewell has been running her well known Art Gallery and framing business for many years. It is in one of the little pockets that you can find in Central which have remained relatively untouched by the urban…

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18/08/2008