The view from the Anglo Boer War fort at Uniondale

Uniondale between the Klein Karoo and the Langkloof is famous for it's ghost, but I'm sure most people know very little else about the town.  Visitors will also find a lot of history in the area.  Amongst that is the fact that the town was protected by 6 British Forts during the Anglo Boer War.  One of these have been restored and can be visited on a hill overlooking the town.  I've always looked up at it passing through but on my last visit I decided to go and look for the Geocache located at the fort and made my way up for a closer look. 

The Gariep Dam - South Africa's biggest dam

Returning from Gauteng on a recent road trip I decided to make a little detour via the Gariep Dam and take the Steynsburg and Hofmeyr road through the Karoo to Cradock.  I made a lunch and leg stretch stop at the lookout overlooking the Gariep Dam wall.  The Gariep Dam was opened in 1071 and initially called the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam after the first prime minister of the Republic of South Africa.  After the end of Apartheid it was decided to change the name to the Gariep Dam.  Gariep is the original name of the Orange River and means "river" in the Khoekhoe (Khoisan) language.

 

The Gariep Dam is the biggest dam in South Africa and has a total storage capacity of approximately 5,340,000 megalitres and a surface area of more than 370 square kilometers when full.  The wall is 88 meters high and along its crest is 914 meters long.  Truly a South African man made marvel.

Waterfall reflection

The Tsitsikamma is a world of indigenous forests bordered by mountains and a rugged coastline.  One of the most beautiful places there is.  At the heart of it lies the Tsitsikamma National Park.  The Mouth Trail takes visitors from the park's restaurant area to the Storms River Mouth with its three suspension bridges.  Just after you start off on the trail there is a little waterfall on the left hand side flowing into a pool.  A tranquil spot even with tourists walking past every few seconds.  

Railway line sunset

Picture this.  The R60 between Robertson and Worcester in the Western Cape.  Kinda in the middle of nowhere.  Nothing in sight other than the remains of an old railway station  Two guys park next to the road and dash across, climb through an old fence, hop over the railway line and run of into the bushes and fynbos.  Moments later they emerge and start walking back to the car.  What do you make of this?  For most regular folk it would probably be a very suspicious sight.  Confusing at least.  Not if you were a Geocacher though.  This was exactly what happened on the way to Cape Town recently.  Our last cache for the day before the last stretch to the Mother City had us do exactly that.  On the way back to the car the sun started to set behind the mountains on the horizon and I whipped out my phone to snap this picture.  My favorite pic from the trip.

Tsitsikamma Lily

My three favorite flowers are aloes, proteas and arum lilies.  All flowers you can see in gardens and parks but at their most beautiful when you see them out in the wild.  Aloe flowering in the Karoo, proteas in the Fynbos on a mountain side and lilies growing wild in the forest.  This lily I found next to the path on the way to Kerneels se Klip in the Tsitsikamma National Park.  I was hoping to find one in the sun but being in a forest means lots of shade.  

Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean

 South Africa.  Places to go, things to do, people to meet, activities to do, food to eat and to top it off, memorable sunsets.  Like this one over the Atlantic Ocean seen from Signal Hill.  Makes you want to pour a sundowner and salute the day as well as what waits for you tomorrow.  Happy exploring.

Tsitsikamma National Park

This is a view that everybody who has been to the Tsitsikamma National Park would know.  If you haven't been there, this is the view from just below the restaurant building at the rest camp looking across the bay towards Storms River Mouth in the distance on the left.  If you look carefully you would be able to see the end of the suspension bridge across the river mouth.

 

Feeding Koi at the Barrydale "water front"

Barrydale on Route 62 in the Klein Karoo is a pretty little town known for the beautiful surrounding mountains offering various walks, the Tradouw Pass, quint gardens, interesting shops and farm stalls, restaurants popular with passing tour groups and the very famous Ronnie's SEX Shop down the road.  Everything but an ocean.  So I was very intrigued when I saw a Geocache description refer to a spot as the Barrydale "water front".  One or two turns off the main road and we discovered The Blue Cow restaurant situated on the edge of a farm and... you guessed it... a farm dam.  The best seats are on the deck overlooking the farm and the owner quickly brought Erenei and I two slices of bread to feed the koi fish that live in the dam while she chatted away to us.  True country hospitality.

Koffiebus and Teebus

 The Karoo has a beauty that some admire in awe while others tend to just want to pass through as quickly as possible.  I love the Karoo landscape with its big skies, Karoo koppies, windpumps, sheep, karoo vegetation and its interesting people.  Returning home after a trip to Johannesburg I decided to drive via the Gariep Dam, Steysnburg and Hofmeyer before the last stretch from Cradock.  Outside Steysnburg are two very well know Karoo landmarks.  Teebus and Koffiebus, two Karoo koppies (flat Karoo mountains) that got their names from the fact that people say they look like a big coffee pot and a thinner tea pot next to each others.  I just couldn't help but to stop to snap a picture to post here and on Instagram.

Karoo sunrise

A 4am departure on a road trip to Johannesburg meant that I was just south of the Karoo town of Cradock when the sun started to lick at the horizon.  It wasn't long for the clouds to be on fire and I couldn't help but to pull over to take a picture with my phone which I Instagrammed immediately.  The Karoo always has something breathtaking to offer visitors on a plate.

Canola flowers in the Overberg

I've always wanted to take a couple of pictures of the canola fields in the Overberg to post but I always seem to travel through the area in summer or winter and never in spring.  Attending the e-Tourism Africa Summit in Cape Town and having driven up via the Klein Karoo I didn't even think of canola fields until we dropped over into the Overberg at Botrivier and there is was down below.  Patches of canola field flowers in all the green.  Now to find a nice spot with a view and the sun behind us.  The cloudy conditions didn't help either.  Somewhere between Riviersonderend and Swellendam I saw what I was (kinda) looking for.  Pulled over and positioned myself to take a few pictures, one of them being this one showing the canola field next to the N2.

 

Erenei, my travel companion on this trip, snapped this picture of me snapping the above picture. 

See what I mean with "positioned"? 

 

Ever seen a Firefly on a fence?  Luckily the farmer didn't.

Delville Wood Memorial and Table Mountain in the late afternoon

 My quick two day visit to Cape Town for the e-Tourism Africa Summit just wet my appetite for a bit of a Cape holiday again.  Not that I know when I'll get the opportunity but I do know that I need some explore time in the city again.  The three things I would really like to do is a tour of the underground tunnels that run through the city bowl, to hike up Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge and to do the open bus City Sightseeing Tour.  So my Cape Town bucket list is made.  The tunnels I mentioned were used to channel water down to the gardens from the mountain (I hope that is putting it correct) and visitors can now be taken on a guided tour of these tunnels under the city.  I did get to make a whirlwind visit to the gardens themselves - looking for a Geocache, what else? - after the end of the first day of the summit and snapped this late afternoon pic of the Delville Wood Memorial with Table Mountain in the background.

Ashton locomotive at sunset

The town of Ashton is situated on the Robertson Valley close to the start of Route 62.  As one drives along this road between Worcester and the Klein Karoo there is a steam locomotive on the left about halfway through town.  Heading down to Cape Town I made a quick stop to have a look and with the sun heading to the horizon I snapped this picture.

 

 The locomotive is a No 2010 class 14 CRB and was designed and built by the Montreal Locomotive Works Canada - a division of the American Locomotive Company.  The Class 14 CRB locomotives were built between 1910 and 1922 to specifications of Mr D. A. Hendrie Chief Mechanical Engineer of the South African Railways.  No 2010 was commissioned in 1919 and used on the Worcester / Mosselbay rail section until 1983.  This Cape Gauge locomotive weighs 84.1 tons and the 10 ton / 4250 gallon capacity tender 50.9 tons.  The tractive effort of the locomotive is 35400 pounds at 75% boiler pressure with a boiler capacity of 180 pounds per square inch.  Yeah yeah, I know its useless info to most of us but there are some train nuts out there who would find it very interesting.

Atlantic seaboard sunset

 One of South Africa's most popular sunset view sites is from Signal Hill in Cape Town.  Visitors and locals alike head up to its lookout spots to see the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean.  And that is exactly what I did last week on a whirlwind visit to the city for a tourism e-marketing summit.  The conference ended just before six and I rushed up, parked the car and made my way along one of the paths to find somewhere to enjoy this magnificent sight. 

Dirty clean fun at The Color Run

Last year the first ever Color Run in South Africa took place in Port Elizabeth, so it was appropriate for the city to stage the first South African one in 2014 again.  I got an invite from Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism to come and participate in the event along with the family and on a slightly cold and wet Sunday morning headed down to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.  I wasn't sure how a powder paint event would go down in the rain and even if people would still rock up, but we weren't going to throw in the proverbial towel without at least finding out.  With dark clouds on the horizon we arrived at the start finish festival area but the music was pumping, the Algoa FM DJ's were working the crowd and people were being very festive.  As we lined up for the start the rain came down and for a minute there I thought people would head for their cars but Gordon Graham and the other joc's just turned up the volume and got people more in the spirit of... well... getting dirty while participating in the happiest 5k on the planet.  And that was what it was.

Once the gun went the rain was forgotten and the fun started.  I wouldn't quite call what we did the happiest 5k run on the planet.  Probably the happiest 5k stroll on the planet.  You can have more fun with each other and fellow participants while walking and that was what we did most of the way.  By the time we started most people were well and truly coloured, but as if that wasn't enough we had a new colour added to our designs at every one kilometer mark while there were music and entertainment mixed in-between.  By the time the finish line was reached most people were well and truly coloured in and most mothers would throw away clothes looking like ours.  The finish line wasn't the end of the party though and most runners gathered in front of the stage where a puff of paint went up every few seconds.  It truly was as if a flock of flying unicorns went over head all day long.

 

I'm sure there are a couple of people heading to work this morning with green, blue and pink coloured streaks in their hair and other body parts (he says looking at his purple hands while typing this).  Drama Princess for one has a purple glow to her hair while the Damselfly has a bright green wave on the top and pink in the back.  That after four washed yesterday.  A badge of honour warn in remembrance of an epic morning of dirty clean fun.  Or is it clean dirty fun?  

 

Disclaimer: We participated in The Color Run as guests of the organisers and Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism.

East London coastline

I haven't spent much time in East London. Always in and out without much opportunity to explore.  My last visit was no different but I made sure I had a couple of minutes to swing by the Esplanade and snapped this picture of the beach as the afternoon shadows started to stretch out to sea.  

 

Karel Landman Monument - the globe off the beaten track

Very few people driving along the R72 coastal route between Port Elizabeth and East London have ever seen or even know of the Karel Landman monument about halfway between Nanaga and Alexandria.  The only indication that there is a monument up the dirt road is a road sign at the turnoff.  A couple of kilometers up the dirt road one stands in awe though of the magnitude of this monument in the shape of a globe.  Its huge... and kinda in the middle of nowhere. 

 

At about the centenary of the Great Trek, the idea was initiated for a local monument to commemorate the centenary of the trek from the Eastern Cape by the Voortrekker party under leadership of Karel Landman.  Landman farmed in this area until 1837 and took a party of about 180 trekkers and their servants on a trek of 885 kilometres into Natal. He became prominent in several battles with the Zulus and was the second in command of the Boer forces at the pivotal battle of Blood River

 

Well known Afrikaans architect Gerard Moerdijk was approached for the design which was approved in May of 1939, although the granite plinth had been inaugurated on 16 December 1938 already.  The concrete and terrazzo monument was manufactured by the Lupini Brothers in Johannesburg at a cost of £470 (R940 back then).  The monument was unveiled later in the year on 16 December 1939 by WA Landman, a descendent of Karel Landman.

The East London Multicultural Man

 The East London beachfront has a very interesting looking statue which had me scratching my head when I saw it for the first time.  Multicultural Man is a bronze sculpture created by Italian artist Francesco Perilli.  It depicts a faceless man in the middle of the earth who is trying to unite two meridians, while the other meridians are lifted by doves, the universal symbols of peace. The bronze man himself is three meters high and has been designed to represent no particular cultural, ethnic or religious background.  There are five Multicultural Man bronze sculptures located on five different continents of the world.

 

These locations include:

• Toronto, Canada
• Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Changchun, China
• The City of Whittlesea, Melbourne Australia
• and obviously East London, South Africa

R72 sunset

I had to make the 600 kilometer return trip from Port Elizabeth to East London twice this past week.  Luckily for me I enjoy road trips for various reasons and other than my back complaining I really didn't mind going.  Returning from the second trip it started to get late and the sun started to set as I was about 30 minutes east of Port Alfred on the R72.  A quick sunset photo with my phone and I was on the move again to get home before it got too late.