Feathered beach bum

A kelp gull taking it easy and enjoying the view on Kings Beach with a ship berthed in the Port Elizabeth Harbour in the background.

Ships in the Bay

A navy ship busy leaving Algoa Bay while a number of big ships wait in the background to enter either the Port Elizabeth or Coega Harbours.

St Augustines

Port Elizabeth has two beautiful cathedrals literally a couple of hundred meters away from each other in the city centre.  The one is the St Mary's Anglican Cathedral while the second (in picture) is St Augustine's Catholic Cathedral. 

 

When the first Catholic priest set foot in Port Elizabeth in 1840 (after being shipwrecked in Cape St Francis and having to travel the last 100km to town on horseback), there were only 42 Catholics in the town. In the coming years the Catholic community grew and flourished and in 1861 construction started on St Augustine's on land purchased on Castle Hill. The project took place under the watchful eye of Father Thomas Murphy. St.Augustine’s was opened and solemnly consecrated by Bishop Moran on the 25th of April 1866. The bronze statue of Christ the King which can be seen above the door was donated by the Frost family in 1931.

 

Click here to read the whole history of St Augustine's.

Brick work chimney

Talk about a structure standing out like a sore thumb.  In this case looks more than one of the other fingers though.  The Despatch brick works chimney was built in 1882 and was once part of a flourishing brick works. Bricks were "dispatched" or rather "despatched" from here along a railway siding (later known as "Hitler's Halt") to Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth. Many of the older buildings in PE and Uitenhage were built with these bricks. Guess where the town's name comes from.

Open air theatre

St Georges Park has a stunning outdoor theatre venue called Mannville which (used to) host the annual Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival.  Unfortunately due to people who feel that they are entitled to other folks' property and those who purposefully go out and damage what is not theirs, the festival has been moved to indoor theatres the last two years.  The theatre was established in 1972 by Bruce and Helen Mann and if only these bad elements can be kept out of the park, the theatre could host so many different plays and events.

Nippers

On Saturday while having a walk along Kings Beach we found that there was a regional Nippers competition on the go.  Nippers are young Surf Lifesavers between 5 and 14 years old. Unlike senior Surf Lifesavers, the majority of them do not patrol the beaches but focus on fun and surf awareness.

Nippers learn about safety at the beach. They learn about dangers such as rocks and animals as well as surf conditions such as rip currents, sandbars, and waves.  Like their Senior counterparts, Nippers participate in a variety of individual and team events like beach sprints, Flags, swimming and board races.  After watching the kids we are strongly considering letting Drama Princess try it out next summer.

Marine Hotel view

A couple of months ago I won a two nights Protea Hotel voucher in a competition and the expiry date started to approach so we decided to not go out of town for it but rather enjoy a weekend "holidaying" in our own home town.  The KidZ stayed at their grandparents and the Damselfly and I just planned a weekend of relaxing and walking on the beachfront.  Believe it or not, it actually felt like we were somewhere else.  We didn't have the KidZ being hungry or thirsty or tired all the time and didn't have to rush because we had to get home.  We could have an afternoon nap or just sit and enjoy the view.  Walked all the way to the harbour wall and spent an hour watching a Nippers competition on Kings Beach.  And the weather played along beautifully.  It was pure bliss.  The cherry on top?  A sea view room on the sixth floor.  Nice! 

South End Tree

Across the road from the South End Museum stands an old Wild Fig tree which is thought to be over 100 years old. The tree stands next to what used to be Chase Street in the old South End and back in the days the kids used to climb the tree while the older people sat in it's shade. When the people were removed and the buildings in the area demolished, the fear was that the tree would also be chopped down or pushed over by a bulldozer. Luckily this didn't happen.

Walkie Talkies

Chicken heads and feet, better known as Walkie Talkies, at a township marketplace in Njoli Square.

Cape Recife lookout

The view from the top of the Fortress Observation Post (FOP) in Cape Recife looking west.  The Cape Recife FOP was one of three built at the start of the Second World War as part of the Port Elizabeth harbour defences and acted as lookouts for enemy boats, subs and planes.