Township choir

Most of the tour operators doing township tours have projects that they support. Somewhere along the tour they would stop at a school, creche or feeding scheme for a visit. A portion of the tour's income also gets donated to that specific project. Most of the time the tourists would also open their hearts and wallets and in this way many worthy projects in the townships keep afloat. Here a group of tourists are listening to the New Brighton SDA Primary school choir.

St Mary's Cemetery

The St Mary's Cemetery is probably the oldest formal cemetery in Port Elizabeth and can be found close to the city centre. It is situated near the mouth of the Baakens River on the banks of what used to be the fresh water lagoon after which Algoa Bay was named. I did a post in The Firefly Photo Files a little while ago with some more pictures of the cemetery.

Campanile

The Campanile was built and completed in 1923 on the landing beach where the British Settlers landed in 1820 in commemoration of the centenary of their arrival. The tower is 51.8 meters high and has 204 steps to the top. It also has a carillon of 23 bells. Unfortunately it was cut off from the city by the construction of the Settlers Freeway, but there are plans to develop a Freedom Walk from the Campanile to the Donkin Reserve. Unfortunately the sign in the picture has disappeared a while ago, probably at the hands of thieves who have sold it as scrap metal. But we won't go into that now.

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Sundays River Ferry

A little while ago I got to go on the Sundays River Ferry in Colchester. The ferry trip takes you up stream to the old bridge and then down towards the river mouth where passengers can get off and climb the giant sand dunes. There is a magnificent view from the top of the dunes. I will post a pic of this at another time. During the trip hosts Les and Maggie will entertain passengers with a wealth of information about the river, the area and the nearby Addo Elephant National Park.

Night time Pier

Evening shot of Shark Rock Pier at Hobie Beach. The pier is quite a popular spot and is situated next to Hobie Beach which is a blue flag beach. The Boardwalk Casino and Entertainment Complex is just across the street and the popular beachfront promenade leads right onto the pier. A little while ago I found a web cam overlooking Hobie Beach with the pier in the back ground. Have a look at it here.

Casino Mermaid

The fountain at the entrance to the casino in the Boardwalk complex has a feature with a mermaid and two dolphins in it. Right from the start people started to throw money into the fountain and every now and then the fountain gets cleaned out and the money donated to a charity. The casino licence is currently up for renewal and except for the Boardwalk there is one other casino licence bidder. It will be quite interesting to see what the outcome of the bidding will be.

Primary Schools Rugby

On Saturday we stopped at Walmer West Primary School just down the road from us to watch a bit of primary schools rugby. They were having a sports day and various schools were playing both rugby and netball against each other. As we got there the under 13 teams of Walmer West Primary in the blue and Excelsior Primary on the orange and green took to the field. The boys in the Walmer West team was a lot bigger than the Excelsior boys, but the boys in orange never stood one step back for the boys in blue. Walmer West did end up as visitors on the day.

The days when I was involved in schools rugby came back to me. Parents running up and down the side of the field shouting their lungs out, the know it all puffing away on his cigarette criticising every call the ref makes and the girls marching around trying to catch the eyes of the boys and then being disappointed when the boys are so focused on their warm-ups that they don't even notice them.

Donating blood

I am a regular blood donor and try to go and donate at least four times a year. I headed down to the SA National Blood Service Head Office next to the Provincial Hospital this morning with the family in tow. Chaos Boy wanted to see how I donate blood. The SANBS does a project with schools where they encourage high school pupils to donate while encouraging the primary school pupils to get their parents to go during a specific month. Chaos Boy's school had their month a couple of months ago and since then he's been wanting to go along to see what happens.

How ironic it was when I saw a link that Jeanette posted on Facebook relating to the subject and its importance. It was from The Three Ring Circus. The Post in question can be found here, but more importantly a link to her speech on Why you should donate blood.

South End Museum

The South End Museum on the corner of Beach Road and Walmer Boulevard is housed in the old Seamans Institute Building and remembers people and places of South End. South End was destroyed by the Apartheid Government after its people were displaced in 1965 following the implementation of the Groups Areas Act.

On the floor of the one exhibition hall visitors will find a map of old South End laid out on the floor with pictures of the area along the walls.

Beachfront clouds

An interesting cloud formation seen from Pollock Beach

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