FIFA Host City Profiles film crew

As mentioned before, I spent a couple of days with a film crew shooting the footage for the host city profiles for FIFA. The footage will be shown before the matches are played during the FIFA 2010 World Cup here in South Africa. This means that the footage shot here in Port Elizabeth gets aired just before the games that is played in PE. We are fortunate that there are eight games here, so lets hope it involves some high profile teams so that the city gets maximum exposure from the footage.

Watersport

Port Elizabeth is often tagged as the water sport capital of Africa due to the wide variety of water sports that can be participated in in the Bay. Algoa Bay offers perfect sailing conditions all year around while paddling, scuba diving, surfing, kite surfing, and many other water sports are also popular. Here in one photo there are four different water based sports being participated in. On the left there are scuba divers getting ready to go out, in the back is a wave skier, there is a paddler going in and a rubber duck with some recreational fishermen coming ashore.

Harbour sunrise

I was very fortunate to spend some time with a film crew shooting footage for the FIFA host city profiles to be broadcasted during 2010 recently. I did have to get up really early a couple of mornings as the guys wanted to get various good sunrise locations. This specific morning we were standing on the Settlers Freeway looking out over the harbour at sunrise. I posted a couple of similar shots I took from here a few of days ago on The Firefly Photo Files which can be seen here.

Govan Mbeki Road traders

About a year or so ago the municipality had the top section of Govan Mbeki Road (previously Main Street) up to the City Hall developed into a pedestrian walkway with stalls and space for street traders to work from. The actual street is now a one lane one way towards the City Hall just behind the traders (towards the right hand side of the photo). A lot of the stalls are still empty, but there is loads of potential for the area to become not just a market for locals, but also for tourists visiting the historic heart of the city.

More Penguin Plod

Following yesterday's post on the Penguin Plod I decided to post another pic from the Plod. Yesterday's was from the last section of the walk strolling (or plodding) along the beach. Today's picture was taken not too long after the start of the Plod as people were heading down towards the Cape Recife Lighthouse through the nature reserve.

Penguin Plod

Yesterday we headed down to Cape Recife Nature Reserve for SAMREC's Penguin Plod. SAMREC is the newly opened South African Marine Rehabilitation Centre which I did a post about a week or so ago on The Firefly Photo Files. The Penguin Plod is a fun run / walk which SAMREC hopes will become an annual event and acts as a fundraiser for the centre. Judging at the response they had as well as the uniqueness of the fun walk, it will definitively happen again. The fun walk started at the SAMREC centre and headed two kilometers down the road to the Cape Recife Lighthouse. It took the participants past some of the interesting and indigenous vegetation that the reserve has to offer. After a big circle around the lighthouse and a quick sip of water, it was back to the centre, this time walking on the beach. This bit probably took everybody twice as long as the walk to the lighthouse as the kids kept on exploring and picking up stuff on the beach. The one young lady did the whole walk in a penguin suit as you can see in the pic. We will be back next year, for sure.

National Braai Day

As Boing pointed out in her comment on yesterday's Heritage Day post, today is also Braai Day. A braai (or barbeque) is a traditional South African pastime. It is so part of South Africans that some group decided to celebrate Braai Day on Heritage Day as it is a intricate part of our heritage. So to celebrate Braai Day, we braai'd this afternoon. And went all out. Hey, whats the use celebrating something half hearted?

So from left to right: Boerewors (farmer style sausage), Skilpaatjies (or Karoo Oysters, which is minced lamb's liver wrapped in fat), Sirloin steak, Lamb chops, Lamb ribs and pieces of Lamb flank. The Braai broodjie (toasted sandwich made on the coals with tomato, onion, cheese and chutney) followed as soon as the meat came off. I am stuffed with left overs for tomorrow.

Heritage Day

Tomorrow (or today, depending on when you read this), 24 September, is Heritage Day here in South Africa. Heritage Day is a Public Holiday on which South Africans across the spectrum are encouraged to celebrate their cultural heritage and the diversity of their beliefs and traditions, in the wider context of a nation that belongs to all its people. Here in Port Elizabeth there will be several Heritage Day celebrations with onr of the main ones being a "Save our City" campaign driven by the Nelson Mandela Bay Tourist Guides Association. Activities will start at the Donkin Reserve after which a guides walk will be done past some of the heritage sites in the area.

The Donkin Reserve with the Lighthouse (1861) and Pyramid (1820) is very much part of Port Elizabeth's heritage in that the pyramid is a monument in memory of Lady Elizabeth Donkin after which the city was named.

So whatever you do tomorrow, don't forget to celebrate your heritage.

Love This Place

The big "LOVE THIS PLACE" banner went up on the side of Brister House in the city centre a little while ago and I think it's awesome. Brister House is one of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality's main office buildings and is one of the highest buildings in town. I love Port Elizabeth with a passion and when I pass the building on the freeway and see it, its like a reminder (not that I need reminding) how much I do.

Cape Recife at low tide

Beach scene taken at Cape Recife at low tide