Coastal view

The view of the coastline from the road between Beachview and Maitlands

Rest-a-While on Kragga Kamma Road

When was the last time you drove down Kragga Kamma Road to Coleen Glen? Been a while?  Have you ever noticed the little building on the right hand side not far from Cow's Corner?  Well that little building has a new tenant, a new jacket and a new purpose.  Rest-a-While (Pebble Springs) is the biggest little farm stall around.  Not so much a farm stall as in the traditional sense of the word, but who knows what it can develop into in future.  Currently open on Saturdays and Sundays, Rest-a-While sells collectors items as well as some home made breads and jams and they support their local community by displaying their wares.  Do take a drive out that way and drop by if you're curious.  I just noticed it as I drove past and had to stop.  

Seaview coastline

A hazy late afternoon on the coast at Seaview with an approaching thunderstorm

Chokka boat lights off Seaview

Drama Princess went to sleep over at a friend's house in Seaview a few nights ago.  We dropped her off a little late and it was dark by the time we got there.  I just love the view from Seaview over the ocean.  The bright lights are chokka boats fishing off the coast.  In the background are white and red lights.  The white lights is Jeffrey's Bay while the red lights are from the JBay Wind Farm turbines.

The sun setting over Seaview

Chaos Boy spent Saturday afternoon at a friend's place in Seaview and I headed out there late afternoon to fetch him.  It wasn't quite sunset time yet, but the sun was starting to head towards the horizon so I pulled over to snap this pic.  I'm still trying to figure out the best setting on my DSLR to take sunset pictures but hopefully I'll get there soon.

Lauries Bay cottages

The cottages along the coast at Lauries Bay near Kini Bay.  The cottages, or shacks as a lot of owners refer to them, stand on private land and if you buy one you only have limited rights and not ownership of the land on which your cottage stands.  The cottages are mostly self sufficient as there are no water or electricity supply to the area. 

Geocaching at Shelly Beach

One of the things I enjoy most about Geocaching is the fact that it takes you to interesting and beautiful places.  A good example is a cache I placed at Shelly Beach at Lauries Bay about 2 km along the beach from Kini Bay.  I took a walk down the coast from Kini Bay on New Year's Day to do some maintenance on the cache and took my camera with.  This is the view from close to the cache location looking west along the coast back towards Kini Bay with the cache container sitting on the rocks before I returned it to it's hiding place.

Kini Bay coastline

Taking a walk along the Kini Bay coastline with Chaos Boy on New Year's Day

New Year at Kini Bay

New Year's Day is known as the one day in the year when people flock to the beaches in their hundreds  thousands millions to wash off the dust from the past year and celebrate the arrival of the new one.  A few years ago we discovered that the gully in Kini Bay gets bypassed by most and it has now  become a tradition for us to go and spend our day swimming and snorkeling here.  This year was no different and we spent a glorious sunny day topping up on our tans sunburn. 

Lauries Bay coastline

The coastline at Lauries Bay near Kini Bay on the Wild Side

Lauries Bay coastline

This is the last of the photos I took at Lauries Bay a couple of weeks ago showing the cottages along the coastline.  The cottages may be very basic with no electricity and being responsible to collect and supply their own water, but they are situated in a beautiful environment with stunning views

Caching at Lauries Bay

Sport can be divided into team sport and individual sport.  When it comes to Geocaching it can be a bit of everything depending on your mood or situation.  You can go caching on your own, with friends or with family.  I actually enjoy every one of these and for different reasons.  I find caching on my own is a great way to have "me" time while caching with friends can be lots of fun.  As both Chaos Boy and especially Drama Princess enjoy Geocaching and even have their own profiles, I find its a fantastic way to spend family time together either as the whole family or with them individually.  An opportunity to visit Lauries Bay near Kini Bay meant that we could go and search for a cache placed along the coast near there and for a change the whole family pitched in to find it again, even the Damselfly tagged along and helped with the search.

The Red Rocks at Lauries Bay

Lauries Bay is situated on the Wild Side close to Kini Bay and is a collection of shacks (as the owners call them) on private land.  To get to it you either need to know somebody there to get access via a dirt track or walk about 2km along the beach from Kini Bay.  On the eastern side of Lauries Bay is the locals' most popular fishing spot called the Red Rocks.  I headed that way not to fish but to find a Geocache located there and snapped this pic (edited with a bit of HDR) looking west.

Lauries Bay gully

Port Elizabeth's Wildside has a notably rugged coastline.  It's not called the Wildside for nothing.  It does mean that there are countless gullies and spots between the rocks to explore and enjoy.  Like this one at Lauries Bay near Kini Bay.

Kini Bay seen from Lauries Bay

Lauries Bay is a collection of cottages - or shacks as the owners call them - on private land along Port Elizabeth's Wild Side just before Kini Bay.  The only way to get to them is along a private track which only the shack owners have access to or walking along the beach.  I've never been to Lauries Bay before but an ex-boss of the Damselfly invited us out there for a day and I got a chance to explore the area a little bit.  I was very surprised that Kini Bay was actually a lot closer to Lauries Bay than what I always thought.

Swimming at my favorite gully at Kini Bay

Tomorrow is back to work for me.  Summer may be here but my holiday is over.  It didn't quite turn out the holiday I was looking forward to last year but we did try to make the most of it.  Last week we spent a day at our favourite gully at Kini Bay near Seaview.  A safe and uncrowded spot we like to go to when the main beachfront's beaches are overflowing.  I'll be longing to this scene when I am back in the office tomorrow.  On the other hand, I love my job and really enjoy it, so I am sure I won't long to it too much... not quite yet.

Enjoying Kini Bay

The gully on the beach at Kini Bay is fast becoming a favorite with my family.  It's safe, not too crowded and a great spot to teach the kids how to snorkel.

Kini Bay gully

On New Years Day we went looking for a quite beach to relax on, cool off and catch some sun.  We discovered the ideal spot in Kini Bay.  A gully right in front of Sea Otters Lodge.  While Port Elizabeth's main beaches were packed to the brim, the Kini Bay beach was nice and quiet and the gully was a safe spot for the KidZ to swim and snorkel at their heart's delight.  We will definitively come back to this spot in future.

Preditor Park hyena

During my last visit to the Seaview Predator Park I snapped a couple of pics of their two Hyenas and wanted to share this one with you.  Since my visit the two, named Ed and Shenzi, has been returned to the reserve they came from as babies and word is that they are doing great and have found themselves at home with the group right away.  I couldn't find any other information on their website or FB on why the hyenas came to Seaview as cubs and where the reserve is, but for the sake of the post, just enjoy the picture. 

Tiger photography

A visitor to the Seaview Preditor Park getting some close-up shots of one of the park's tiger cubs