Foggy skyline
Another part of the city seen with one of the monument's Voortrekker leader statues in the foreground.
A couple of pachyderms having a meal together at the Addo Elephants National Park just outside Port Elizabeth. I just loved the fact that the second elephant actually looks like the first one's reflection.
The Commemorative Methodist Church, or as the locals call it The Commem, stands at the bottom of church square in the beautiful Eastern Cape town of Grahamstown. The church was completed in 1850 and was built along the Gothic Revival lines which was very "in" at that stage.
In front of the church stands the statue of the Winged Angel of Peace supporting a dying soldier,.jpg)
The church seats 1200 people with seating downstairs as well as on a gallery. A very interesting and curious feature of the church is all the graffiti on the pews up on the mezzanine. The boys from nearby Kingswood Collage use to come to the church for services until they got their own chapel in the 1950's. It became a tradition to carve out your name in the wood. in 1872 the church employed a law man to try and catch the kids doing it, but that never worked and the tradition lived on..jpg)
The church has a number of beautiful stained glass windows, this one showing the British Settlers giving thanks for their safe arrival from England to the Cape Colony. The church also has several ornate plaques honouring the lives of past members of the church.
I love forests. They are peaceful, specially if there is a stream running through it. They also offer countless photo opportunities of things even as simple as a moss covered tree trunk.
A Caterpillar with a difference. This is the Caterpillar engine of the shipwreck at Cannon Rocks on South Africa's Sunshine Coast. 
For a while now I've wanted to get down to the Horse Memorial here in Port Elizabeth to get a nice silhouette sunset shot. Well, the other night I had my chance. It wasn't the most painted sunset sky, but I love the effect.
I used to go to the town of Grahamstown (about 120km east of Port Elizabeth) quite a lot during my tour guiding days. Just outside of town as you are heading towards Bathurst is a spot where fresh spring water flows out of a pipe into a little stream. Most of the times I passed there was somebody filling up containers of water which made me very curious.
I asked around a bit and Oom Willem at the Grahamstown Tourism office told me that it is a natural spring of the purest water around flowing out of the surrounding hills. Apparently water has been gathered at the spot since the early settler days and that the fountain has never dried, even in the worst droughts. He said that a lot of town folk would go there to gather water to drink as its so much better than the tap water. He couldn't tell me who put the pipe in though.
On the fence behind the spring is a sign with the following words: 
I may use the name Firefly, but my favorite insect is the dragonfly. Skimmer Dragonflies (Family Libellulidae) are strong, fast flyers are are normally seen skimming low over the water's surface. They are carnivores and feed on other insects. Skimmer dragonflies mate in flight and the female will lay her eggs while skimming over the water. They would normally have their wings out horizontally when at rest, so I think this one was trying to hide from me by making himself look smaller..jpg)
Cheetah.jpg)
Giraffe
This weather vane I found standing on top of the church in Prince Albert in the Karoo
The cock on top of the NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) in the Langkloof town of Uniondale
I imagine the cow that doesn't give milk will also be found on top of a spire. This one wasn't a church though. It stands on top of a gazebo at Fancourt Golf Estate in George on the Garden Route
The dragon of St George sits on top of one of the pavilions at the St Georges Park cricket ground in Port Elizabeth. St Georges is the oldest test stadium in South Africa.
The Voortrekker Monument stands on top of a hill outside the city of Pretoria and can be seen from all directions as one approaches it. The monument was opened in 1949 and stands 40 meters long, 40 meters wide and 40 meters high. This massive granite structure was built in honour of the Voortrekkers who left the Cape Colony between 1835 and 1853 to get away from British rule and find land to call their own.
Surrounding the monument building is a circular wall of decorative granite and engraved with wagons. This represents the historical Trekker practice of "circling the wagons" to defend themselves when under attack. The wall consist of 64 ox-wagons which is the number of wagons used to form the laager at the Battle of Blood River.
At the foot of the Monument stands a bronze sculpture of a Voortrekker woman and her two children by the well know South African sculptor Anton van Wouw. It pays homage to the strength and courage of the Voortrekker women who played as big a part in this historic event as the men.
Inside the monument are three levels. On the entrance level (middle level) visitors will find the historical wall frieze. It represents the history of the Voortrekkers and depicts scenes that played itself off during the trek. Another feature of the monument is the Cenotaph on the bottom level of the monument and engraved with the words: "WE FOR YOU SOUTH-AFRICA". Once a year, at mid-day on the 16th of December, a ray of the sun shines through a hole in the dome to illuminate these words.
I have done a post about a Kite spider and its web before, but I recently came across this orange and white Kite Spider (Genus Gasteracantha). The Kite spider has a flattened, shiny and hard abdomen with spiny projections.
They are normally found in a symmetrical orb web in a tree. They are quite small, normally about 8mm, so most people would walk right by them without spotting them.
The giraffe... the world's tallest mammal. In Afrikaans a giraffe is called a kameelperd (camel horse). Just like a camel, the giraffe walks with both legs on each side of their body at the same time. But that's not what this post is about. Have you aver wondered about a giraffe's horns? Are they real horns or just tufts of hair?
A giraffe has horns. I found this giraffe skull in the garden at Elephant's Footprint Lodge. In the picture you can see that the horns are growing on to of his head and isn't just hair. The way to easily see the difference between males and females are that the females have lots of long hairs growing on top of the horns while the male's horns are normally bold on top. Go figure.
A couple of guys fishing at sunset on the Sundays River just outside Port Elizabeth.
