Lower Baakens Valley

Looking down into the lower Baakens Valley from South End, this is very much what you see.  The road in the middle of the photo running up the hill is Brickmakerskloof with the St Georges Park Cricket Stadium just visible at the top.  The Baakens River is contained in a narrow channel from here down to the Port Elizabeth Harbour, which means that if a flood hits PE, this section always gets severely effected.  The buildings are mostly old warehouses used by different businesses.

Exciting Changes

The Boardwalk Complex is about to embark on a new and very exciting journey.  They have just had their casino license renewed for another 15 years and part of the license agreement is the construction of a new international standard conference centre and 5 star hotel.  The Chinese style building in the picture used to house a Chinese restaurant and a couple of other shops, but it will be making way for the new addition to the complex.  Exciting Changes Underway Shortly!

Stadium skydiver

Part of the halftime entertainment during Friday night's rugby game between the Southern Kings and the Free State Cheetahs was a skydiver landing in the stadium.  The guy had everybody on the edge of their seats as it seemed like he just cleared the railing on the top of the stadium roof on his way in.  Perhaps that was the way he wanted to do it...

Green Mosque Tower

The minaret (tower) of the Pier Street Mosque next to the Port Elizabeth Harbour as seen from a vantage point in South End.

Bethelsdorp Historic Houses

A row of historic houses in the historic heart of Bethelsdorp.  The long white building on the left is the Almshouses which was built by the London Missionary Society in 1822 as part of the mission station.  They are still used to assist and accommodate the poor and destitute.  The other two houses also date back to the early days of the area and both are still occupied as well.  The left hand one between the Almshouses and the red one belonged to the first black school principal in Port Elizabeth.

St Peter's Ruin and freeway

This is the view from South End just above the St Peter's Church ruins looking down towards the Settlers Freeway.  In the picture the Port Elizabeth harbour is on the right.  The tower just to the left of the freeway is the Campanile while the City Hall and Old Post Office towers are just visible on the far left.

Coastal info boards

I love theses information boards that you find at touristy spots and lookout points along the South African coastline.  Some of them teach you about whales and dolphins while others contain information on early people living there as well as what to find in the intertidal areas.  I think there should be more of them out there to educate the public even more on this beautiful coastline of ours.  And the coastline is beautiful.  I just bought the Shoreline DVD set on Kalahari.net.  Shoreline is an excellent documentary on the whole South African coast with fantastic information and super cinematography.  A must for every travel and nature lover.

Saluting the flag

Looking towards the Donkin Reserve from Fort Frederick, the giant South African flag (and when I say giant, its actually as big as a tennis court) is visible next to the top of the Donkin Lighthouse.  I liked the look of the flag with the Fort's guns in the foreground.  It has an certain officialness to it.

Schools athletics at the Oval

I went to Chaos Boy's school athletics meeting at the Westbourne Oval the other day and all the memories from years gone by (long ago) of competing there came flooding back.  The noise on the stands, the chanting, the starter's pistol firing, the smell of the track in the heat, sore legs, dry mouth and the joy of coming in first (or in most of my cases, not coming in last).

Sailing past Bird Rock

A yacht heading back towards the Port Elizabeth Harbour sailing past Bird Rock just off Hobie Beach