Uitenhage

Uncategorized

AutoPavilion Geocache

One of my favorite geocaches done lately was one located inside the VW AutoPavilion in Uitenhage.  The coordinates take you to the museum itself from where you have to follow the instructions in the cache description.  These tell you to look for the blue racing car and to get in to find the cache.  I'm giving this one away a bit, but the container is muggle proof so doing so isn't the end of the world.  The cache container turned out…

Comments Off on AutoPavilion Geocache
18/04/2015
Uncategorized

St Katharines in Uitenhage

A little caching expedition took me to St Katharine Church in Uitenhage the other day.  The foundation stone, which cannot be found today, was laid in 1867 and it is from this date that the anniversaries are counted, although the building (as in construction) only began in 1869.  It was completed in 1875 after many financial constraints and problems and dedicated that same year by Rev. William Llewellyn.  It was named by him after St. Katharine, an eighth century Egyptian Princess who was beautiful…

Comments Off on St Katharines in Uitenhage
16/04/2015
Uncategorized

AutoPavilion garage

The VW AutoPavilion in Uitenhage doesn't just have some awesome exhibits inside the facility, there are also a couple of outside exhibits.  One of them being this replica roadhouse and garage.

1 Comment
15/04/2015
Uncategorized

The VW AutoPavilion – a world class attraction

A quick trip out to Uitenhage to fetch my drivers license had me pop into the VW AutoPavilion briefly and even though I was in and out quickly I just realised again how much of a world class attraction it is.  We really are very fortunate to have it right on our doorstep but I often wonder how much more popular it would have been if it was in Port Elizabeth and able to attract more visitors.  Locals tend to be a bit…

Comments Off on The VW AutoPavilion – a world class attraction
14/04/2015
Uncategorized

Hinterveld Mohair factory shop

The last stop on the Mohair Factory Tour in Uitenhage is the Mohair factory show at Hinterveld.  Open to the public, this shop sells labeled mohair products that retails for a lot more in other shops and often gets exported to fashion retailers and designers in the UK and other countries. Yesterday I attended the groundbreaking of the new Mohair South Africa headquarters in Port Elizabeth (I'll still post about that) and found out to my shock that the Gubb and Inggs Factory…

2 Comments
09/04/2015
Uncategorized

Spinning mohair tops

Ever wondered how yarn is spun? It is one of the things you get to see while on the Mohair Factory Tour in Uitenhage.  This section of the tour is through Mohair Spinners South Africa and is probably the most interesting part of the tour when it comes to "fancy machinery".  The machines even know when the yarn breaks, grabbing it and weaving the two pieces together again before continuing.  Fascinating.   

1 Comment
08/04/2015
Uncategorized

Bales of clean mohair

Remember the bales of raw mohair arriving at the factory I posted on Sunday?  Well, these are the bales of clean mohair that gets exported after the whole cleaning process has been completed.

1 Comment
07/04/2015
Uncategorized

Mohair – after the wash

In the first picture of this series of pictures from the Hinterveld Mohair Factory Tour in Uitenhage showed the raw mohair as it comes in from the farm.  From there it goes through a washing and drying process.  The washing process takes the mohair through two baths where a machine with "spider" legs makes sure it gets dunked and washed properly.  They then come out at this spot in the picture before being sucked into the drying pipes.  I don't…

Comments Off on Mohair – after the wash
06/04/2015
Uncategorized

Raw mohair arriving at the factory

I came across a folder with five pictures taken at Hinterveld in Uitenhage during a Mohair Factory Tour which for some reason I never posted.  Oh well, better late than never.  At the start of the tour you get to see the bales of raw mohair as it arrives at the factory for processing.  The washing, drying and combing process takes place at Gubb & Inggs, one of three factories (the others being Mohair Spinners South Africa and the Hinterveld…

3 Comments
05/04/2015
Uncategorized

Bashoto War Memorial in Uitenhage

In Magennis Park just off Church Road (Graaff-Reinet Road) in Uitenhage is a monument that seems kinda out of place in this part of the province.  It's a memorial commemorating those who died in the  Morosi Mountain and Basuto Campaigns of 1879 and 1880-1882. Morosi's Mountain was the name given to a fortified mountain in the Drakensberg mountain range on the banks of the Orange River in southern Basutoland (modern day Lesotho).  This was the site of a siege during the Gun War, also known…

1 Comment
17/02/2015