Gamtoos River

A couple of weeks ago we spent a weekend camping next to the Gamtoos River west of Port Elizabeth. The word Gamtoos comes from the Khoisan language and means "Place of the Roaring Lion". Its unsure if it was called that because of the wild lions that was found in this area or if there was a Khoisan tribe that lived in the area with such a name. A third explanation could be that when the river comes down in flood, it literally roars down to the ocean.

The Gamtoos River is the lifeblood of the Gamtoos Valley which is prime farming area. The bottom section of the river is a wide tidal river and ideal for fishing. In the area where these pictures were taken a guy caught a 76kg Kabeljou (Cape Cob) a couple of years ago.

The Gamtoos River was the eastern boundary of the Cape Colony in the mid 1700's. In the early days farmers had to take their ox wagons upstream quite a distance to cross the river. In the mid 1800's a pont was in use where the Gamtoos Ferry Hotel is situated and in 1896 a one lane steel bridge (picture above) was built. This was the main road from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town until the new N2 bridge was built over the river in the 1970's.

Church gate

Mud prawn

Mud prawns are abundant in estuaries around the low tide level where burrows are easily visible. They are filter feeders who feed from their U-shaped burrows. Mud prawns are very popular for bait fishermen are often seen on sandbanks with prawn pumps collecting them. I have to admit that they are ugly buggers and I wasn't too keen picking one up the first time I was given one, but it wasn't that bad.

Farm workers houses

Farm workers houses in the early morning light on a Karoo farm. Check out the full moon in the background.

Note: I don't know if there are actually somebody living in these, cause in the two days I was on the farm I never saw anybody there.

Kouga Sunset

Sunset over the Gamtoos River Valley to the west of Port Elizabeth. The Gamtoos River Valley is prime farming area. This lower part of the valley is ideal for dairy farming while higher up in the valley they farm with citrus (mostly oranges) and vegetables (mostly potatoes). The Kouga Dam, one of Port Elizabeth's main water supply dams, are also situated higher up in the river.

For more breathtaking pictures of the sky, visit Skywatch.

Melon

Ever heard of a place called Melon? No? Well, the other day I discovered such a place. Melon is a siding on the narrow gauge line between the Gamtoos Valley and the Langkloof. Its basically a farming area and Melon itself is nothing more than two small buildings next to the railway line, a general dealer and two houses.

Campanile

Its been a while since I've climbed to the top of the Campanile. Last weekends I had to keep Chaos Boy busy for the morning while the girls went shopping and we decided to go and climb to the top of the tower.

The Campanile was built and completed in 1923 in commemoration of the centenary of the arrival of the British Settlers in 1820. The site on which it stands used to be the landing beach where the settlers were offloaded before their long journey to the Grahamstown district.

The tower is 51.8 meters high and has 204 steps to the top. It also has a carillon of 23 bells.

At the top of the tower there are windows looking out to each of the four directions. East (above) you look across the Port Elizabeth Harbour which now separate the old landing beach from the ocean. South looks towards the beachfront while West looks across the freeway which separates the Campanile and harbour from the rest of the city. Looking North one can see the new Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and the mountains beyond Uitenhage in the distance.