wildside

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Willows Resort coastline

Over the years Willows Resort along Marine Drive on Port Elizabeth's Wildside has become an PE institution.  During the year many locals spend weekends here camping or staying in the very distinctively Willows rondawels while out of town visitors pack it out during the Summer holidays and over Easter.  I've popped into Willows for various reasons in the past, but got to stay over for the first time on a weekend organised by my in-laws recently.  Willows has it all to…

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04/12/2013
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A quick hike on the Wildside

Port Elizabeth has a number of excellent hiking trails to get one out the city while only a couple of kilometers away from it.  I've been exploring the Fynbos Trail at Schoenmakerskop a bit more lately and got to walk most of it the other day.  Not a trail I'd like to do on a hot day as there isn't any shade along the way, but there are beautiful coastal views and lots of Fynbos and coastal flora to be…

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10/11/2013
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Cannon Bay on the Sacramento Trail

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…

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30/10/2013
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Wildside at Willows

Its Spring Day!!! Spring hasn't really sprung just yet but psychologically at least we start to think Spring and we know its somewhere on the horizon.  I'm celebrating Spring Day with a photo of the Wildside with Willows in the background.  PS, I'm currently at the Getaway Show in Johannesburg so please excuse the short posts.

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01/09/2013
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Santa’s beach hangout

On a geocaching outing along Marine Drive the other day, Chaos Boy was very chuffed to find the spot where Santa hangs out during the year.  The painted rock is visible from the road but not as well known as the bikini tree lady on Buffelsfontein Road.

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18/08/2013
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Rock pools

Port Elizabeth has some great rock pools to discover between Cape Recife and Sardinia Bay and then again out at Seaview.  Some are ideal for kids to explore while others are deeper gullies and pools and great for snorkeling.  Pity my wetsuit has shrunk so badly over the last couple of years...

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25/07/2013
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Rocky coastline

I took Chaos Boy for a morning of geocaching along Marine Drive the other day, picking up about 15 caches along the Wildside.  It meant that we stopped quite often to go boulder hopping in search of caches.  The Wildside between Cape Recife and Schoenmakerskop (and further) is a rugged coastline and when the south-westerly wind starts pumping it truly becomes wild out there.  But when there is no wind its a stunning area to explore with many little trails,…

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09/07/2013
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Oceanos Lifeboat

4 August 1991 was a dramatic and fateful day on the Eastern Cape coastline with the sinking of the MTS Oceanos on the Wild Coast close to Coffee Bay, east of East London.  What does this have to do with Port Elizabeth, you ask?  After all 571 passengers on board was rescued, some of the lifeboats floated south-west along the ocean currents with one of them washing up on the coastline at Schoenmakerskop.  I got to visit the lifeboat for…

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23/04/2013
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Schoenies from the village green

I often wish I lived in Schoenmakerskop.  A beautiful place for walks, swims, snorkeling, fishing (not that I'm a fisherman), sunsets and photographs.  Plus its nice and peaceful in the week and only gets a little busier over weekend.  My kind of place, unless the wind pumps out of the south-west.

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29/03/2013