Sea monsters off Port Elizabeth

 

Is there such a thing as sea monsters?  Huge tentacled beasts dragging ships in under the waves, long necked dinosaur like animals who survived millions of years in the deep or scaly monsters with huge teeth so terrifying that Great White Sharks flee in fear?  A morning's hiking around the Cape Recife Nature Reserve in Port Elizabeth nearly had me thinking twice that I have found proof.

Walking along the Algoa Bay side of the reserve I spotted a spiky spine visible amongst the waves.  I started to get excited and snapped a couple of pics before looking at it carefully again.  It seemed to stay in the same spot and rather than moving about it was the waves that washed over it making it look like it was moving.  Turned out to be the remains of one of the many shipwrecks found along this piece of coastline.  Darn! So close.

About 30 minutes later out on the southern side of Cape Recife I saw something very peculiar lying on the beach.  Dark in colour what what looked like a leathery skin and sharp white teeth... Finally I have my proof!  Unfortunately for the Indiana Jones explorer and discoverer in me it turned out to be the dried out remains of a dolphin that washed up on the beach some time before. Darn again! Oh well, I will have to wait a little while longer before I make my big "ground breaking", "world news creating" and "instant fame" discovery. 

Up the dune

The sand dunes at Colchester outside Port Elizabeth are the western reaches of the Alexandria dune field, the largest coastal dune field in the Southern Hemisphere.  Although it is there for anybody to see, the only way to really get to them is by boat as you have to cross the Sundays River to get there.  The Sundays River Ferry is one of my favorite attractions in Port Elizabeth and thanks to the ferry I have had the opportunity to visit the dunes before.  The climb to the top is a steep one but the view makes it worth it. 

World Rhino Day

Today we celebrate the third annual World Rhino Day not just here in South Africa, but world wide.  World Rhino Day highlight the plight of the rhino which is targeted by ruthless poachers all over the world for their horns which are thought to have medicinal properties by the people in most countries in the Far East.  Part of World Rhino Day is to debunk the myths and diminish the demand for rhino horn.  Up to 12 September rhino poaching in 2012 has lead to the killing of 381 rhinos throughout South Africa.  In 2008 only 83 rhinos were killed with 122 in 2009.  Since then poaching incidents have skyrocketed with 333 in 2010 and 448 in 2011.  If it goes on like this my great-grandchildren will only get to see pictures of rhinos in books.

Penguins under pressure

Last week I saw a stunning yet very sad picture by Luc Hosten on Facebook.  Two days later I was down at Cape Recife in Port Elizabeth and came across the scene photographed by Luc.  The penguin wasn't in the same position anymore and I didn't want to try and recreate the exact scene anyway, so decided on something similar yet slightly further away.  African Penguins are highly endangered and under immense pressure at the moment with some people giving them only 5 years if nothing major is done soon.  The guys at SAMREC in Cape Recife do an awesome job with limited resources but they desperately need the support of the public and corporates to keep them up and running.

Houtkappershuisie

Met sy inheemse woude vasgedruk tussen 'n pragtige kuslyn en die Tsitsikammabergreeks en bruingekleurde riviere wat daardeur vloei is die Tsitsikamma een van my gunsteling plekke in Suid-Afrika.  Wanneer mens die dorpie Stormsrivier besoek vind jy hierdie ou bosbouhuisies langs Eikelaning wat van die dorpie na die ou pad deur die woud lei.

Uitenhage War Memorial

I'm fascinated by a lot of things so I won't say that war memorials fascinate me, although I find it very interesting how the war memorial in every town - because yes, just every town has some kind of war memorial - looks different.  Ranging from cenotaphs to historic cannons and massive monuments to small simple objects.  This is the war memorial in Uitenhage containing a list of men from the town who died during the two World Wars.

Tackeling the city on the Urban Run

Road running isn't for everybody. Pounding away at the road for kilometer after kilometer bores me a little bit, but I do like to participate in races with a difference. The Urban Run around Port Elizabeth's city centre area surely is one of those. Urban Run is a 10,5 kilometer urban obstacle coarse which 1. helps to get people back into the city centre, 2. get people to visit places that they may not have seen or visited in ages, 3. generate money for the chosen charities (R190 000 in fact) and 4. just to have a whole lot of fun. I stuck my mobile phone in a plastic bag (so that it doesn't get wet) and took it along to get a couple of pictures along the way.  This also meant that I was posting said pics onto Facebook at every opportunity I got.

 

I did the Urban Run with the Damselfly and her friend Belinda in tow (although they were probably towing me part the way as well) while trying to keep up with my ultra distance running colleague CW.  The race started on the Donkin Reserve and the first obstacle made its appearance just after the 1 kilometer mark where they had us slither on our tummies through cement pipes.  Hectically tight which meant that you couldn't just crawl through but rather had to claw your way forward while pushing with your toes.   After this everybody knew that this was going to be an unforgettable event and the best was yet to come.

Next up was a series of traffic barriers that had to be crossed over and under along Govan Mbeki Avenue (Main Street).

 

 

The first tough climb was rough. Very rough.  And steep. Very steep.  It wasn't just a climb but a series of steps that took us up Castle Hill for about 100 odd meters before heading down to Military road and up some more steps.

 

Next up was probably one of the most exciting obstacles along the route. Scaling the historic Fort Frederick by way of a cargo net.  That's me in the green shirt and blue pants reaching the top with the picture being taken by one of our friends who waited there with the Kidz so that they could see what we were doing.

 

   

One of the toughest challenges was climbing to the top of the Duckpond Pavilion at St Georges Park, running along the top tier and back down on the other side.  This was followed by a muddy leopard crawl under a cargo net on the sports field next to the stadium while somebody was spraying us with water.  Thank goodness for the plastic bag I had my phone in.

After a run slow jog brisk walk through St Georges Park we left the urban environment and headed down into Settlers Park where we had to cross the Baakens River twice on two different structures built by the Scouts.  It also gave the runners the opportunity to go off road for a little while before hitting the city centre again.  Some runner fell in and got soaked. Me? Luckily I landed on my feet. 

At the bottom end of Settlers Park was a twenty meter long slippery slide with quite a crowd watching at the bottom...

Yes, that's me entertaining the crowd.  I made a head over heals tumble after hitting the rubber mat at the bottom and coming to a sudden and very abrupt stop. There is quite the bruise on my thigh as proof of this.

A number of runners got to visit the Port Elizabeth station for the very first time where we had to enter the one side of a stationary train and run down the length of it, exiting again at the bottom.  This was followed by a very awkward climb over a raining to get back onto Strand Street.  Awkward for those of us with short legs that is.

By now the legs were starting to wobble a bit.  Not because of the distance covered but more because of what it was expected to do up to now.  So just to put some more strain on it they had us run up the 5 or so storeys of the Grace Street Parking Garage and back down again.  The end was in sight.  Well kinda in sight.  The last stretch of the coarse followed Route 67's winding path up the Donkin Reserve to the finishing point close to the lighthouse. 







Crossing the finish line in 2 hours and 15 minutes didn't break us any records, but it still was an absolutely amazing experience which can be highly recommended even if you aren't a regular runner.  Next year we'll be back and will aim to go under 2 hours.