Google Street View guy in PE

A month or two ago I was down in the city centre on a Sunday morning to take some photos and I noticed a guy with a funny thing on his back come walking up the road towards me.  As I passed I realised that it was the Google Street View camera. Cool! There may be photos of me taking photos of the Street View Guy on the net soon.

Fast forward to last week and Google launched 170 trails, all 19 National Parks and 6 UNESCO World Heritage Sites throughout South Africa available on the Google Street View platform.  You can now literally follow a whole trail 360 degrees from the comfort of your chair and check it out before taking it on yourself.  

You can either go and search for the 170 trails on Trailfinder or go straight to Google Street View for a look.  

Baakens Valley trail view

Yesterday morning I hit the trails in the Baakens Valley just off Alan Drive with Chaos Boy to go and find a few Geocaches I haven't had a chance to do.  It's been a while since I've been on them and just realised again why the area is so popular with trail runners and mountain bikers.  Here Chaos Boy is enjoying the view of the river below at the one spot on the trail.

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.

Underneath the bridge

A couple of years ago I got to walk underneath the Van Stadens Bridge for the first time while following one of the trails in the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve in search of a Geocache.  A couple of days ago I saw a friend post a similar picture and I decided to go and dig this photo out to post again.  Not the usual view of the bridge, is it? 

A blooming nice trail

A patch of yellow flowers along the Sacramento Trail at Schoenmakerskop

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.

The Fynbos Trail after the December fire

In early December a huge fire swept through the bush on the Wildside in the Schoenmakerskop area.  One of the specific spots effected by the fire was the Fynbos Trail that starts next to Sappershoek in Schoenies.  I am the cache owner of the PE series of Geocaches that is located along the Fynbos Trail and last Friday Chaos Boy and I headed down to do the trail and some much needed maintenance replacing the caches damaged by the fire.

The devastation of the fire is mind blowing but it is fantastic to see how green sprouts and flowers are appearing all over the burned out landscape.

A quick hike at Van Stadens

This afternoon we headed out to the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve for a quick walk to go and find the oldest Geocache in Port Elizabeth.  While the Damselfly waited in the car, Drama Princess and I headed down one of the trails in search of this very significant cache.  The Pincushion Proteas are stunning at the moment so I kept on falling behind. 

The trail to Flat Rocks

The beachfront walkway continues beyond the lollipop beacon at the bottom of Admiralty Way all the way to Flat Rocks.  The section of the walk from the beacon is actually called the Humpback Dolphin Trail although you're probably more likely to see Bottlenose Dolphins swimming along the coast.  The walkway in picture is the last 100 meters with Flat Rocks to the left. 

Setting off on a hike

A group of people setting off on the very popular Sacramento Tail between Schoenmakerskop and Sardinia Bay during the late afternoon.

Van Stadens King Protea

The Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve must be one of the best places around to see Proteas and other Fynbos species growing in the wild.  Not just is it great to view wild flowers, but the reserve also has a number of excellent trails for you to go and stretch you legs along.  The trails range from short easy walks along the plateau to longer ones that require a bit more effort down into the surrounding gorge and valleys. 

PE's favorite walks and hiking trails

I was invited to participate in the #SharetheBay Port Elizabeth #Blogathon 2016 campaign in collaboration with Cheap Flights, Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism and Travel Concept Solution this week.  As one of eight bloggers taking part I decided not to do the usual "Things to do in PE" kind of blog but rather focused on my favorite nine walks and hiking trails around Port Elizabeth.  The post covered the beachfront boardwalk, Sacramento Trail, Coastal Fynbos Trail, Roseate Tern Trail in Cape Recice, the Grysbok Trail in the NMMU Nature Reserve, the Baakens Valley, The Island Nature Reserve, Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve and Sleepy Hollow.  I'm not going to repost the whole post here, but do head over to Firefly the Travel Guy if you want to read it.

A selfie while walking in the Sardinia Bay Nature Reserve

After a morning of mowing the law and doing some things around the house I headed out for a spot of Geocaching this afternoon.  Rather than just doing a few park and grab caches, I opted to go for a walk in the Sardinia Bay Nature Reserve and pick up a series of 12 caches that I've been wanting to do for a while now.  The caches in question aren't on the regular trails but rather higher up in the reserve along a track used mostly by horse riders and the municipality to access the overhead electricity lines.  I did about 5 km from Victoria Drive close to Schoenies all the way to Sardinia Bay road without seeing another soul. Pure bliss.  

A path inviting you to explore

I had 30 minutes on my hands yesterday afternoon and did a quick detour to Mangold Park to find a new Geocache on the edge of the Baakens Valley.  From the parking coords at the bottom of a cul-de-sac there were two paths splitting off.  A paved one to the right which I had to follow to find the cache and the one in the photo to the left.  Obviously the call of the cache was strong andf I hurried down to do it, but on my way back I took a sharp right onto the path.  The narrow path surrounded by green undergrowth and leading under a number of flowering Coral Trees was just too inviting not to take.  It is normally used by mountain bikers but definitely one that is probably a nice little excursion for trail runners and casual strollers as well.

Chasing the Rainbow hiking in The Island Nature Reserve

Sarah and Ralph from Chasing the Rainbow dragged  the kids (ok, so they did go willingly but you know teenagers) off for a hike through The Island Nature Reserve just outside Port Elizabeth last weekend.  I've done the Bushbuck Trail through the reserve and it is one of my favorite trails in PE.  Check out the video they made and then head over to their blog and read the post by clicking the link above.

Looking down the Baakens Valley

The other afternoon I went for a stroll along the paths in Wellington Park.  Wellington Park is a section of Settlers Park up on the hill on the Walmer side.  Parking is just off 5th Avenue, Walmer from where a circular path takes you around through vegetation made up mostly of Fynbos species.  This section is safe with many Walmer residents taking later afternoon walks along the paths with loved ones or their dogs.  The paths give excellent views up and down the Baakens Valley with this one looking down the valley.  Settlers Park is in the middle, Walmer on the right and the apartments off Ring Road near St Georges on the left.  The Knysna apartment building in South End is visible at the bottom of the valley.

Drama Princess' dedicated Geocache

One of the local Geocachers, Team Navimate, have been honouring Eastern Cape cachers by placing caches in their honour along the Grysbok Trail in the NMMU Nature Reserve.  I first discovered the trial when I went to find a cache placed in my honour about a year ago.  Just after New Year I received an email from Navimate to let me know that they are placing a cache for Drama Princess and we made arrangements for it to be published while we are in the reserve so that she can be the First to Find on it. 

The cache published at 8am the morning and as we received the email notification we were about   meters or so away.  We quickly made our way over to ground zero and I allowed her to find the cache herself.  Congrats Drama Princess on receiving this cache accolade which is the PE cachers' equivalent of having a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Watching zebras on foot

One of the things Drama Princess enjoyed most about walking through the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Nature Reserve was the fact that we spotted a lot of zebra along the way and could get fairly close to some of them without a problem.  How often does city kids get the opportunity to get things like this and it's right here on our doorstep.

Walking in the NMMU Nature Reserve

Drama Princess on the Grysbok Trail in the NMMU Nature Reserve