The Port Elizabeth harbour wall

The Port Elizabeth harbour achieved "port" status for the first time in 1825, long before a proper harbour even existed.  Back then a harbour master was appointed to regulate and oversee the offloading of ships anchored offshore with goods and people being brought to shore in rowboats.  An official surfboat service was established in 1836 and this was followed by the construction of the first jetty in 1837. It wasn't until 1933 and the construction of the Charl Malan Quay (No.1 Quay, now used as the Container and Car Terminals) that Port Elizabeth had a proper port.  

Due to security one can't explore the harbour properly, but you can get to the harbour wall at the bottom end of Kings Beach.  Just remember that you're not allowed to walk onto the harbour wall because if you do you're going to have a security guard on your case very quickly.  The view back along Kings Beach with the beachfront in the background is magnificent though.

Wave Action

Standing at the rock below Something Good (the one with the hole through which the waves crash) and looking back towards Hobie Beach, Bird Rock is quite a prominent landmark in front of you.  This photo was taken on a rough day with waves smashing over Bird Rock on the right.

Waves over Bird Rock

A couple of weeks ago the sea was slightly angry one morning and as I was driving down Marine Drive I noticed that the waves out Pollok Beach way looking quite impressive.  Grabbed my camera and headed over to Lovers' Lane, snapping the waves smashing right over Bird Rock.

Schoenies rocks

We all know Schoenies rocks!  It also has rocks...

Schoenies Forward Observation Post view

The view of the coastline from the World War II Forward Observation Post at Schoenmakerskop.  This historic building is now under threat due to a company wanting to mine the sand of the dune on which the FOP is located saying that it "isn't a natural dune".  What a load of hogwash!

The beacon at Cape Recife

The beacon out at Cape Recife is one of two beacons that were used for shipping purposes before the invention of modern navigation technology.  The second beacon is the lollipop beacon on Marine Drive where Admiralty Road and Marine Drive comes together.  Ships sailing along the coast from the west had to line up the two beacons before they could turn into Algoa Bay.  This ensured that they were well clear of Thunderbolt Reef at the point as well as the reefs inside the bay itself.

Clouds over Port Elizabeth

Last weekend while on the beach I noticed this line of clouds moving over Port Elizabeth.  If I didn't know better I would have thought it was a cold front coming in, but these clouds were moving away and this was the back of it.  Was rather striking... 

Sardinia Bay from the air video

This week's Video Friday post is another of Renaldo Gouws' aerial drone videos, this time of what is probably Port Elizabeth's most special beach.  Sardinia Bay. Enough said. 

Seaview coastline

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

Flat Rocks at high tide

Flat Rocks was named so for the exposed reefs of flattish rocks that you find along this piece of Algoa Bay's coastline.  But when you visit at high tide there aren't any visible flat rocks so you won't have any idea what the locals are talking about. 

The beacon at Cape Recife

Just inside the bay near the Cape Recife Lighthouse stands a beacon similar to the lolipop beacon at the intersection of Marine Drive and Admiralty Way.  The two beacons date back to before modern navigational technology came into use and showed the way for ships sailing into Algoa Bay.  Ships sailing along the coast from the west had to line up the two beacons before they could turn into the bay.  This ensured that they were well clear of Thunderbolt Reef at the point as well as the reefs inside the bay itself.

Rock hoppings at Schoenies

The coastline at Schoenmakerskop with all its rocks, pools and gullies really lends itself to exploring youngsters.  Like a free treasure hunt jungle gym exploration facility. 

Have you ever heard of Tufa stromatolite?

One of the aspects of Geocaching is something called an Earth Cache.  An Earth Cache isn 't a physical cache where you have to find a container but rather something that teaches you about the earth and it's geology.  Last weekend I did an Earth Cache in Schoenmakerskop set up by Seekoei NMB called PE Tufa stromatolite ecosystems.  What is Tufa stromatolite?  Please bear with me because this get's very scientific (which means I'm copy and pasting from the listing otherwise I may just be misinterpreting the information.

Tufa is a variety of limestone, formed by the precipitation of carbonate minerals from ambient temperature water bodies. Geothermally heated hot-springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits known as travertine. Tufa is sometimes referred to as (meteogene) travertine. Care must be taken when searching through literature to prevent confusion with hot spring (thermogene) travertine. Calcareous tufa should not be confused with tuff, a porous volcanic rock with parallel etymological origins that is sometimes called "tufa".

This now is where the Tufa stromatolite discoeverd at Schoenies comes in.

The first extant marine tufa stromatolites along the southern African coast were described in the early 2000s from Cape Morgan and later investigated in some detail from a geochemical and geomorphological point of view. Located on a dolerite headland shaped into a wave-cut platform, these stromatolites consist of continuous, extensive laminar growths or discrete accretions bridging gaps between separate boulders. In either case, the formation results in enclosed rock pools capable of trapping carbonate-rich groundwater seeps.

Although other rare, isolated examples of similar formations have been reported to occur from Port Elizabeth to Tofu in Mozambique, the recent discovery of numerous and closely spaced living stromatolites on the coastline south of Port Elizabeth appears to be extraordinary.

While the Cape Morgan headland includes about 50 stromatolite colonies, each of about 3 m2 on average, the formations mapped so far to the west of Cape Recife include 540 colonies, ranging in cover from < 1 m2 to > 100 m2.  

Southern African tufa stromatolites are regarded as unique in their nature, because they typically occur at the interface between freshwater seepage points and the marine penetration.  I know this is all a mouth full, but if you read through it carefully and understand it, it really is something very interesting and unique.

Schoenies coastline

The beautiful Schoenmakerskop coastline

Then and Now - North End coastline

North End Beach back in the days.  A stretch of sand all the way to the Swartkops River which could possible have become one of Port Elizabeth's prime beachfront real estate areas if it didn't fall in the hands of Railways and municipality.  This pictures dates back to 1902 right after the Grate Gale when 21 ships ran aground along North End Beach.

Today North End Beach is no more.  The beach and coastline was reclaimed, railway tracks, Settlers Freeway (M4) and the N2 was built along it and the sea is held back by dolosse.  Sad really when you think of the potential this area could have had.

I know the angle of the Now photograph isn't the same as the Then, but I just haven't been able to find a spot with uninterrupted views of the whole coastline like this one from Richmond Hill.  The houses in the foreground is just above Albany Road.

Coastal cleanup with the local Geocachers

Every year thousands of people worldwide pitch in and do their bit on International Coastal Cleanup Day.  Anualy thousands of tons of garbage winds up in the oceans, with 60% of that being composed of plastic material. Plastics especially last a very long time in the ocean, and are in such abundance that there are 46,000 individual pieces of plastic litter for every square mile of ocean. Plastics are very hazardous to marine life, killing more than a million birds and over 100,000 seals, turtles, and whales, and an immense number of fish in our ocean. 

This year most of Port Elizabeth's beaches were included with teams of volunteers setting off all along the coastline from early morning.  The local Geocaching community also got into the swing of things and cleaned up a section between Hobie Beach and Pollok Beach as part of a CITO (Cache in Trash out) event that was organised by Kitchenboss.  Unfortunately I couldn't make it this year but Mrs Wikkelgat had her camera as usual and I'm borrowing her collage of pictures to share with you.

The remains of the Oceanos lifeboat at Schoenmakerskop

It's been a few years since I've been down to the remains of the Oceanos lifeboat at Schoenies, so last Sunday I decided to head on over and take a walk down for a change again.  

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.  After all 571 passengers on board were rescued, some of the lifeboats floated south-west along the ocean currents with one of them washing up on the coastline at Schoenmakerskop.  It landed up on the rocks in a marshy area on the eastern side of the village and has become fairly overgrown over the years.  

The Oceanos set out from East London on her way to Durban on 3 August 1991.  She headed into 40-knot winds and 9 m (30 ft) swells.  At about 21:30 while off the Wild Coast, a muffled explosion was heard and the Oceanos lost her power following a leak in the engine room.  The ship's Chief Engineer reported to Captain Yiannis Avranas that water was entering the hull and flooding the generator room.  The generators were shut down because the rising water would have short circuited them. The ship was left adrift.  Realising the fate of the ship, the crew fled in panic.  No alarm was raised and passengers remained ignorant of the events taking place until they witnessed the first signs of flooding in the lower decks.  At this stage, eyewitness accounts reveal that many of the crew, including Captain Avranas, were already packed and ready to depart, seemingly unconcerned with the safety of the passengers.

Nearby vessels responded to the ship's SOS and were the first to provide assistance. The South African Navy along with the South African Air Force launched a seven-hour mission in which 16 helicopters were used to airlift the passengers and crew to nearby settlements.  All 571 people on board were saved with a group of entertainment staff, under the leadership of Moss Hills, organizing the orderly evacuation of passengers by the helicopters.  The shipwreck is possibly the most recent instance where women and children were given priority when loading the lifeboats.  The entertainers were the last of the passengers lifted off the ship. 

The information is courtesy of Wikipedia

Port Elizabeth's beautiful wild coastline

One of the things that Port Elizabeth and Nelson Mandela Bay is very proud of and which gets promoted by Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism often is that the metro has 40 kilometers of beautiful white sandy beaches ideal for swimming, long walks and building sand castles.  But what is in between because the metro has about an eighty kilometer stretch of coastline from Van Stadens River mouth to Sundays River Mouth when you exclude the area covered in dolosse between the harbour and just short of Swartkops?  A rugged coastline roughly from Cape Recife to Maitland (with the exception of the Sardinia Bay area) via Willows and Schoenies known as the Wildside.  The Wildside is ideal for hiking, fishing, exploring between the rocks with the kids, swimming in rock pools, snorkeling in gullies, picnics between the boulders, sunbathing away from the beach crowds and so much more.  A stunning coastline to enjoy and be proud of. 

A Schoenies bench

The perfect spot to enjoy the view of the beautiful coastline at Schoenmakerskop from

Beachfront walkway

If you continue along the beachfront walkway past the lollipop beacon onto the boardwalk it feels like the coastline suddenly transforms.  You feel just that little bit further away from the city.  I did it during the week early one morning and there wasn't another soul around until I encountered another walker on the way back to my car, but if you feel wary doing it when it's this quiet, do it on a Saturday morning when there are more walkers about.  It's really worth it.