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.

#ECMeetUp food

I attended the third Eastern Cape blogger meetup event at The Plantation this morning and there was food.  I mean it was great networking, meeting fellow bloggers, awesome talks and... food. Ok, so I'm not going to post about the event and all the great bloggers who attended, but I am going to show you the food The Plantation dished up for us.  The first thing you saw when you arrived was the pancake table.  Pancakes coming straight off the pan to be topped with all this. 

I decided to mosey over to the Mastertons Coffee table first for a cappuccino and only then back to the pancake table to join the line over there.  I wasn't the only one to have sweets for breakie.

The pancake aftermath.

If breakfast had starters then this was it...

... and this.

And finally breakfast.  If you are curious about what was going on at the event, who was there, what we did and more, then go and check out the #ECMeetUp hashtag on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Algoa Bay Hope Spot mini documentary

Algoa Bay is one of six marine Hope Spots proclaimed along the South African coastline.  Although the Algoa Bay Hope Spots covers the whole diverse marine ecology of the bay it focuses on the African Penguin.  The other South African Hope Spots are  False Bay, Cape Whale Coast, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and the Aliwal Shoal.  Check out this awesome mini documentary on the Hope Spot and learn more about the penguins and other inhabitants of Algoa Bay.

Roosterkoek for lunch

I had to drive to East London yesterday (and missed yesterday's post so will slot one in a bit later today) and back today.  Along the way I stopped for a quick take away.  Want to venture a guess where I stopped?  I'll give you a hint.  In addition to roosterkoek they also sell the most delicious pies...

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.

Returning to high school rugby

I used enjoy watching DF Malherbe, my alma mater, play rugby and netball on a Saturday. A few years after school I actually helped to coach the u14 team for a year or two but as time went on I got to go less and less as life got more and more busy.  Now Chaos Boy is at DF but he doesn't play rugby so we probably only got to go once or twice last year.  This weekend was the first big home derby of the season against Volkskool from Graaff-Reinet and we went to hang out there a bit.  DF's first team pulled off a two point victory in a nail biting game.  I'm sure going to try to go and watch more often this year.

Cape Recife and Schoenmakerskop from the air

This week's Video Friday post is another one of Renaldo Gouws' drone aerial videos, this time of the striking coastline of the Wildside featuring Cape Recife and Schoenmakerskop.

Thankful for the rain

What an absolute pleasure the rain was today.  From the sound of it not much fell in the catchment areas which means we need a lot more but I'm sure at least the lawns around town sighed a sigh of relief.

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?