The abandoned Carlisle Bridge cricket field

No exploration expedition has ever ended in failure.  Well perhaps some have.  One or two may have run out of water trying to find a way out the desert, the odd expedition may have lost boat and crew on uncharted seas and at least one was never seen again after getting lost in the Amazon.  Detouring from Port Elizabeth via Grahamstown onto the R350 to Bedford, I wasn't really expecting to see much en route other than passing over the Great Fish River and the few caches lying in wait along the way.  So did I find anything really interesting? I think so although others may feel differently.  What? An abandoned cricket field.

Cricket was brought to South Africa by the British in the start of the 1800's and entrenched in the Eastern Cape after the arrival of the 1820 British Settlers.  The Settlers' decedents started cricket clubs in all the small Frontier Country towns and many of them still have the game played there.

The cricket club at Carlisle Bridge unfortunately is no more.  As game farming in the Eastern Cape increase it leaves less people in the districts to play cricket.  This is particularly the case at clubs away from the towns where it becomes very tough to keep numbers up.  Carlisle Bridge unfortunately falls in that category.  The club stopped playing cricket around 2003 and it didn't take long for the ground and buildings to start falling apart.

Although I passed through on a coolish early summers morning, it is said that Carlisle Bridge was the hottest place in the district to play cricket.  There is even the story of the local farmer who went to hell and on arrival asked the devil for a blanket.  He told the devil, "This place isn't hot.  Try playing cricket at Carlisle Bridge in February."

By the way, I couldn't find the Geocache at Carlisle Bridge.  Finding the abandoned cricket field was a great consolation prize though.

My Old Fort adventure in Durban

I get to visit Durban once a year during the annual Tourism Indaba but other than stopping in Umhlanga and taking walks on the beachfront, I've never really had an opportunity to explore the city much.  This year I decided to pinch off an hour to explore and discover at least one new place and the choice fell on The Old Fort.  From outside the place didn't look like much but I pressed on and in and was pleasantly surprised by what I found.  When the Dutch arrived in the small settlement of Durban in 1842 the British weren't too impressed to see the Dutch flag flying at the Point.  A armed force of a few hundred were sent to the settlement to sort the Dutch out and was surprised by some stern resistance.  After having to retreat back to the camp Dick King set off on his famous overland horse ride to Grahamstown to fetch reinforcements.

The camp didn't really provide the British with much shelter and during a 24-hour truce called to bury the their dead, the British moved quickly to strengthen it.  Sixty wagons was pulled in a circle around the tented camp and a trench dug around the perimeter.  The excavated soil was used to build up a mount in front with parts of the trench and mount still visible today.  During the siege the Boers shot 651 cannon balls and thousands of bullets at the British.  Many of the cannon balls were dug up and reused after having been fired at them by the Brits.

 

. The battle went on for a whole five weeks until it was finally ended with the arrival of two British ships, a schooner called the Conch, and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Southampton, with reinforcements.  Dick King had succeeded.  The Dutch were sent packing as far back as Cowies Hill and the rebellion was over.  The British was back in full control of Natal.

 

The Old Fort was continuously used as barracks until 1897 and today it's an open air museum of sorts.  The old magazine building has been converted into a chapel while aged military veterans live in rooms that used to be the military barracks.  The gardens that can be found through out the fort complex is littered with historical and interesting items, amongst them a bench made from timber of HMS Southampton, a cannon recovered from the wreck of the Grosvener (1782), and plaques commemorating the heroic journeys of John Ross and Dick King.  The South African Heavy Artillery Memorial can also be found in the fort's gardens.

 

Before I knew it my hour was over and I had to get back to what brought me to Durban in the first place.  Perhaps in the future I will get other opportunities to explore the city and expand my knowledge of the city a little more.

British Fort at Cogmans Kloof

On top of the Cogmans Kloof tunnel outside Montagu stands an old English fort built by the British in 1899 during the Anglo Boer War.  The fort has a great view of the approaching road and kloof through the mountains and one can immediately see why the British chose the spot.  To get to the top there is a steep little path from across the road from the parking area and after a couple of minutes of huffing and puffing you get to the top and that awesome view.

Cape Recife WWII Forward Observation Post

Port Elizabeth has arguably the most complete collection of surviving coast artillery buildings and equipment dating from the Second World War (1939-45) of any port in South Africa. Before the Second World War the Port Elizabeth Harbour actually had no defence in place except for Fort Frederick which was built in 1799 to guard the original landing place in the early days long before a harbour was even built. In 1942 it was decided to put harbour defences in place at all South Africa's harbours. 
 

Three Fortress Observation Posts (FOPs) were built at Amsterdam Hoek (Bluewater Bay), Seahill (Cape Recife) and Skoenmakerskop, together with a Port War Signal Station next to Cape Recife lighthouse. These three along with the Algoa Battery building in Humewood and the Battery Observation Post on Brookes Hill had to keep a constant lookout for approaching ships, submarines and planes. The buildings were all constructed with curvy, free-form profile of parapets, angle buttresses and 'fins' to break up their square, box-like shapes when seen from the sea against the background of the bush.

Just below the FOP in Cape Recife the ruins of the old barrack buildings can also still be seen.  The Roseatte Tern Trail through the Cape Recife Nature Reserve runs right past the ruines before heading up the hill to the observation post itself which has fantastic views of the surrounding game reserve.

Visit the South African Military History Society website for a lot more detailed information on the FOP's around Port Elizabeth.

St Peter's Ruin windows

South End in Port Elizabeth is similar to District 6 in Cape Town where the original inhabitants where removed because of the Group Area's Act of the 1960's.  St Peter's Anglican Church was built in 1877 and the school next to it was the first church school in South End to produce pupils to  standard six (grade 8), the highest standard for coloured people at the time.  The church was deconsecrated in 1972 and most of it demolished to stop the congregation from returning to it even though they had been removed from the area.

St Peter's Church ruin

Wild grasses around the St Peter's Church Ruin in South End, Port Elizabeth

Ruined house

One of those unwritten rules of photography (and life) is to never venture somewhere potentially dangerous or unknown while you are on your own.  Always make sure you have backup.  Not that a guy like James Bond listens to that kind of advice.  But James Bond I'm not, so I ventured as far as the door.  There are a couple of old houses at the bottom of South End in Port Elizabeth that is literally falling apart and I decided to have a closer look.  Unfortunately I was alone so I didn't venture further than the door for safety reasons.

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Swartberg Pass toll house

The ruin of the old toll house on the Swartberg Pass (here and here) can be found at the start of the pass on the Oudtshoorn side of the mountain. I would have wanted to spend some more time at the ruin getting photographs, but it was hot (around 40 degrees Celsius) and the family was getting impatient in the car.

Fort Frederick

The oldest building in Port Elizabeth, and the Eastern Cape is Fort Frederick. Situated on the hill next to the Baakens River, it was built in 1799 by the British to protect Algoa Bay from invasion.

The fort was the first permanent stone structure built by the British in Africa, south of the equator. It fort contained a guardhouse, a powder magazine and was armed with two 8 pounder land guns. It was manned by a garrison of 380 men.

Looking at the picture it could be difficult to understand why the fort was built so far from the sea. In the background is the Port Elizabeth Harbour which wasn't obviously there in those days. The Baakens Valley below was also the location of a big lagoon in the days which meant that the fort was directly over the water. The guns on the fort today aren't the original guns, but smaller ships' cannons. The interesting thing about the fort is that it never fired a shot in anger.

Today there aren't much left of the old fort other than the stone structures. This picture was taken inside the old guardhouse.

St Peter's Church ruins

The St Peter's Anglican Church in South End, Port Elizabeth was completed in 1877. Situated on the hill overlooking Algoa Bay, it was one of the important places of worship in early Port Elizabeth.

Before the height of the Apartheid era the area of South End was a vibrant area inhabited by people from all races. When the Group Areas Act came into being in 1962, non-white people all over South Africa was removed from what was termed white only areas and relocated to the black townships and coloured areas. The people of South End's time was up in 1965 and they were forcibly removed.

Although now living on the other side of the city, the congregation of St Peter's Church still came back to worship in the church to the dismay of the Apartheid government. To stop them from doing so it was decided to demolish the church. Today the ruins stand just above the St Mary's cemetery in between modern townhouses. The site has been earmarked for an upmarket development with the ruins being enclosed in a glass dome to preserve it.

I've been wanting to visit the ruins for a while now but have just never gotten around to it. Today at lunchtime I popped down camera in hand and wasn't disappointed with what I found. A great photographic setting, not just for ruin scenes, but also for wedding, fashion and other photos.