Rural Port Elizabeth

Isn't it amazing that we live in a city with so much rural to it as well?

I got to visit Hole in the Wall

Regular follower of PE Daily Photo may have noticed (or at least I hope you noticed) that I have been MIA for two days.  I had to "pop" up to Coffee Bay for the quarterly Wild Coast Holiday Association meeting and struggled with my internet connection while there so couldn't post.  I'll catch up on all the missed day soon, but for now here is the proof that I got to visit Hole in the Wall for the first time.  Wow, what a beautiful spot.  Keep an eye on Firefly the Travel Guy for a couple more photos soon.

Tsitsikamma, the gateway to the Garden Route

The Tsitsikamma truly is a special place.  This breathtaking stretch of the Garden Route is where mountains, indigenous forests, deep gorges and lush vegetation skirt the rugged coastline of cliffs and sandy beaches. The area has an abundance of indigenous flora – ancient yellowwood trees and magnificent fynbos plants – as well as birdlife.  For the adventurous there are various activities catering for everybody from heart stopping adrenaline filled adventure to relaxed soft adventures.  Hope you enjoy this destination video of the Tsitsikamma Tourism Association.

InniKloof cascades

One of the cascading waterfalls you can see at the end of the InniKloof Waterfall Hike near Hankey.  

Read more about our outing on the hike to the waterfall at InniKloof.

A mountain pool dip

A couple of weeks ago I got to finally go on the Waterfall Hike at InniKloof outside Hankey.  Something we've been wanting to do for quite a while now.  It was a day of beautiful views, huffing and puffing over a mountain, nearly loosing a child in the wilderness and finally taking a swim in a refreshing mountain pool under the waterfall in stunning surroundings.  You can read more about our adventure in the post Up(s) and down(s) and into the water at the InniKloof Waterfall hike on Firefly the Travel Guy.

The waterfall at InniKloof

Two weekends ago we got to do the waterfall hike at Innikloof outside Hankey and I was amazed that even though we are in a severe drought situation, the river and waterfall still had a decent flow to it.

This is Winter on the Wild Coast

With summer in full swing, the Wild Coast Holiday Association has just launched a destination promotion video promoting the Wild Coast as a winter destination for the upcoming winter season.  I'm sure a lot of the Wild Coast locals would ask you what winter is as they have stunning weather over this period and it's a great time to head east from Port Elizabeth to go and explore the Wild Coast. 

Expedition Africa Baviaans 2017 promo

Expedition Africa is the South African leg of the Adventure Racing World Series.  A race normally covers a distance of about 500 km during which teams of four (usually three men and a woman) cover the distance by running, cycling, paddling, swimming, climbing and doing rope work.  The teams have to plot the easiest way from check point to check point and the top teams barely stop to sleep over the five days it takes them to cover the distance.  The back makers complete it in about ten days which shows that this isn't something for just everybody.  This year's Expedition Africa took place on the Garden Route between Knysna and Plettenberg Bay and the Kouga and Baviaans region was selected to host the event in 2017.  The home base will be at Cape St Francis Resort with the course, which stays a secret until the actual start of the race, covering the surrounding area and into the Baviaanskloof.  The promotional video for the race have just been released and I decided to share it with you today for Video Friday.

Tsitsikamma Forest stream

I was in the Tsitsikamma for a meeting today and pinched off a few minutes to go and sit in the forest next to a stream to plug in my soul for a quick charge.  It needs a lot more than just a quick charge but it will have to do for now.  I have a weekend to Hogsback coming up and an end of year trip to the Northern Drakensberg so there are lots of streams waiting for me in my near future.

Coral Aloes in flower

The flowering Coral Aloes in the Karoo just north of Olifantskop was stunning again this year.  We really don't have to go very far from Port Elizabeth to see nature in all it's splendor. 

Karoo mountain road

A weekend or two ago I found myself spending a night at Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve outside Graaff-Reinet before an early morning meeting.  What is spending time on a game reserve without a game drive so we headed out for a drive late afternoon.  The road took us right into the mountains on the reserve and how can one not prefer this over the busy rush of city traffic?

Karoo Heartland - where the land meets the sky

Last week I posted the new promotional video for the Greater Addo and Sundays River Valley area. This week I want to present to you the new video for the Karoo Heartland which covers the towns of Somerset East, Cradock, Middleburg, Nieu-Bethesda, Graaff-Reinet and Jansenville.  The perfect weekend breakaway from Port Elizabeth and truly a place where the land meets the sky.

Chilling with some gnomes

Every now and then I post a photo or two that wasn't taken in Port Elizabeth or the greater Nelson Mandela Bay.  Normally it's because I have run out of PE photos or haven't had a chance to take one.  Today is one of those days.  I'm posting this from Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve outside Graaff-Reinet where I am attending the Karoo Heartland AGM tomorrow.  On my way here I stopped at my favorite two Karoo gnomes a few kilometers south of Jansenville to discuss rugby (seeing that they are dressed in EP Kings and Springbok colours), tourism and the meaning of life.

Port Elizabeth / Nelson Mandela Bay - An African Wildlife Hotspot

Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism has a brand new destination marketing video promoting the fact that Port Elizabeth with Algoa Bay and all it's adjacent game reserve truly is an African Wildlife Hotspot.  At a recent tourism conference I attended, a representative of Kruger Lowveld Tourism in Mpumalanga implied during one of the panel discussions that the Eastern Cape doesn't offer visitors an authentic wildlife experience.  So let's see what Nelson Mandela Bay and surrounds have to offer.   

Algoa Bay with it's 40 km of magnificent golden beaches has one of the most diverse marine eco systems in the world.  Bird Island is home to the largest Cape Gannetry in the world (110 000 breeding pairs) while St Croix Island has over 50% of the world's African Penguin population.  Add to that the fact that Algoa Bay has been proclaimed as an International Hope Spot for the African Penguin, is the Bottlenose Dolphin Capital of the World and offers whale watching and excellent scuba diving opportunities.  

The area offers everything from rocky shores to indigenous floral fynbos, stretches of golden beaches and unspoilt sand-dunes (the Alexandria Dunefield is the largest coastal dunefield in the Southern Hemisphere) to lush indigenous forest and untamed wilderness areas.  This all means that the nature reserves in and around Port Elizabeth offer a wonderful range of options to the great outdoors. 

Then there is the cherry on the cake.  Addo Elephant National Park, home to the Big 7, and number of excellent Big 5 private game reserves within an hour and a half from the city means that this region has developed into one of South Africa's main game viewing destinations.  Who needs Kruger and the Lowveld when the Eastern Cape has such an awesome and very much authentic (and malaria free) wildlife experience to offer visitors?  

Ziplining in Addo with Chasing the Rainbow

Follow the guys of Chasing the Raibow as they go zipling along the longest duel zipline in Africa. Right here in the Sundays River Valley at Sunland near Addo.

The real Falcon Rock

We stopped by Falcon Rock Country Restaurant for the first time on Saturday and discovered a really nice and affordable spot. Just after we got there I headed off along the trails to go and find a Geocacher and along the way discovered the actual Falcon Rock.  If it wasn't for all the gum trees growing around it the rock would have been quite a prominent feature.  Afterwards I went to have a look at the establishment's website and found a bit of history linked to it.  Falcon Rock is located on the old wagon route west of Port Elizabeth and used as an overnight and watering stop for travelers. The distinctive Lady' Slipper rock formation against the mountain side acted as a beacon for these travelers. This rock was called Falcon Rock because of its perchy lookout spot.

Team building at Falcon Rock

After a morning coffee at Crossroads Country Kitchen we headed to Falcon Rock for lunch (it was all about checking these places out as options for the Damselfly's office Christmas lunch at the end of the year).  There was a youth group busy with team building activities and I enjoyed watching them for a bit trying to do a bag jumping race with groups of about six kids in a bag.  It was so funny and I wasn't the only one who thought so.  Those not in the bags actually cracked themselves... till they had to do it as well.

Veggie garden at Crossroads Country Kitchen

Behind the Crossroads Country Kitchen next to the kiddies play area is a veggie garden.  Not just a veggie patch with a few things growing there but a proper dincum vegetable garden from where they get a lot of the veggies and salad used in the restaurant.  Not just is it a veggie garden, it's also the scratch patch for a couple of residents chickens.  The other thing I really liked was the fact that visitors can take a walk through the garden.  Now I want a garden like this.  If only I wasn't so allergic to gardening. 

Crossways pies

Who doesn't love a pie?  I don't mean those heartburn for hours garage pies but rather a proper "home made" farm stall type pie with real meat.  Like the ones that caught my eye at Crossways Country Kitchen on Saturday.  Beef or Venison. Take your pick.

Mountain biking at Crossways

An activity I would really like to take up if I had the time and the money for a proper bike, is mountain biking.  We have some great mountain bike tracks around Port Elizabeth at places like Norm Hundlin, the Baakens Valley, Hopewell Reserve and then out at Crossways where I stopped by on Saturday morning.  Crossways has various trail options ranging from easy and moderate to hard.  Some of the Crossways trails link up with the Jbay Bike Park on the other side of Thornhill as well as the rest of the Three Rivers Trails in the area.