Egret in a thorn tree

A Cattle Egret  (Bubulcus ibis) decked out in its breeding plumage sitting in a sweet thorn tree at the Montagu Leidam in the Western Cape

Sibaya Entertainment Kingdom

Driving from the uShaka International Airport to Durban along the coastal (Umhlanga) road, the African themed Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom is visible on the hillside.  I didn't have time to look around the casino but did take a drive up to the entrance before I had to be on my way again.  There are some beautiful coastal views from up there.  Sibaya is one of two licenced casinos in Durban and if you do decided to visit it, gamble responsibly.

Ranger's Toad

The Ranger's Toad, also known as the Raucous Toad (Amietophrynus rangeri), is one of our most common toad found in South Africa.  If you live close to a pond, dam or stream and hear a loud, incessant duck-like quacking at night then you now know what makes the sound.  As toads go its fairly aquatic and will be found close to water just about anywhere in South Africa.  Interestingly if injured it will exude whitish spots of venom on the parotoid glands which means they can be hazardous to domestic dogs if they are bitten. 

The Sacramento Trail in pictures

Following Thursday's post on the Sacramento Trail in Port Elizabeth I noticed that I had preciously upload a whole series of pictures taken along the trail on a recent outing.  It's been sitting in my drafts folder all this time waiting to be posted and I think it will serve as a follow up to the previous post.

 

The trail follows the coastline from Schoenmakerskop to the

turning point at Sardinia Bay, four kilometres away.

Part of the trail actually follows the beach and with any beach there is always

something interesting to see and photograph

Looking back across Cannon Bay to Schoenies in the distance

 

Some people opt to follow the same path back from Sardinia Bay while others

head up and return along one of the bridle trails  

The coastline used to be home to Khoisan people long before the first Europeans arrived in the Cape.  The returning trail passes a couple of Khoi middens, used to discard their "garbage" back in the days. 

Beautiful views on the returning section of the trail

Meandering on the Sacramento Trail

The Sacramento Trail is probably Port Elizabeth's most popular day hike around the city.  The hike starts in the village of Schoenmakerskop and follows the coastline to Sardinia Bay over a distance of 4km before returning along the bridle trails on top of the vegetated sand dunes.  The 8km trail includes beautiful bays and coves, stunning views and even a little bit of history.  The trail is named after the Sacramento, a Portuguese galley carrying a cargo of cannons, that wrecked along the coast in 1647. 72 survivors made it to land and started walking the over 1000km to present day Maputo in Mozambique with only 9 making it there alive.  The bronze cannons were discovered and salvaged in the 1970's with one of them placed at the start of the trail in Schoenies.

Tourism Indaba 2013

I want to share a couple of scenes from the recent Indaba with you, but first a quick generic explanation to those who don't know what Indaba is.  Tourism Indaba, hosted by South African Tourism, is an annual tourism trade show that takes place in Durban in early May.  Indaba is the biggest tourism trade show on the African continent and one of the top three internationally and brings together product and destinations with buyers from all over the world.  But Indaba is so much more than an exhibition.  It also includes speed marketing sessions, workshops, launches, awards, functions and lots of technology.  This year SA Tourism launched their #MeetSouthAfrica campaign just before Indaba with 15 international bloggers travelling all over South Africa blogging, Facbooking, Tweeting and Instagramming about their experiences.  This was followed by a travel bloggers conference on the day before Indaba where some of the bloggers told delegates more about how bloggers can benefit tourism products and destinations and obviously about their trip.  

 

Delegates received a warm South African welcome at the airport as well as entering the Durban ICC

The exhibition space is split between the Durban International Convention Centre and the Durban Exhibition Centre as well as outside exhibitors in between

 

 The Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism (seeing that I don't blog for a living I need to earn my daily bread somewhere) stand with my colleague Seekoei (the name he goes by online) manning the front desk

 



On the left a delegate is trying out the interactive video wall on the SA Tourism stand while on the right is a chalk drawing outside the Heritage and Cultural Pavilion

 

Sand sculptures done between the ICC and DEC

The Heritage and Cultural Pavilion was a new (and popular) addition to Indaba 2013 and showcased some of the country's top heritage and cultural attractions.  Although there were brochures available, all the information was on display on iPads on the wall as well as through Poken scanners. 

5 star meal - Lunch at Twelve Apostiles

Its not every day that I get to have lunch in a smart place like the 5 star Twelve Apostles Hotel and looking at me in my Batman t-shirt in the last picture I clearly wasn't ready for it either.  The Twelve Apostles sits overlooking the surrounding mountains and ocean on Cape Town's Atlantic Seaboard just a couple of kilometres past the upmarket suburb of Clifton.  The hotel with all its facilities is truly award winning and amongst their accolades are the following.

• Sliver's Silver Award: Won by Executive Chef Henrico Grobbelaar for his Finely Engineered Cuisine (2013)
• TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice 2013 Awards: Top 25 Hotels in Africa (14), Top 25 Hotels in South Africa (2), Top 25 Luxury Hotels in South Africa (13), Top 25 Hotels for Service in South Africa (24) (2013)
• Travel + Leisure (USA) 500 ‘The World’s Best Hotels’: Top 50 hotels worldwide (41), overall score of 93.71 (2013)
• Condé Nast Traveler (USA) Gold List: South Africa - Best Hotels & Resorts, overall score 95.7 (2013)
• American Express Platinum Fine Dining Awards: Azure Restaurant Listed (2013)

And these are just the awards won in 2013 already. 

Along with my fellow two bloggers on the Peninsula Tour we were taken to our inside table with a huge window looking over the veranda and out to sea.  The weather wasn't ideal to sit outside otherwise we would have.  The restaurant décor was muted with no bright and flashy colours except for the blue water glasses on the tables.  Stripes along with black and whites are the order of the day.  Being a Sunday afternoon the dining area also had live background music adding that extra touch of class.  Our waiter, it turned out as well, comes from my home town so all which is always a win.

We were set up with a set three coarse lunch and started with Norwegian Salmon with citrus cured, salmon civiché, green goddess, fennel salad, olice ciabata, and miso mayonnaise.  All of that is a mouth full to say but once the food goes into your mouth it truly a fusion of flavours like any Master Chef judge would be looking for.

The main meal was Beef Fillet with chalmar black eggplant, white carrot and roasted onion puree, variation of carrot and potato Nicola.  Melt in your mouth fillet pared perfectly with all the other flavours.  Its the kind of dish which makes you want to ask for more not because you're still hungry but because of the taste.  Enjoying this meal I can understand the American Express Platinum Fine Dining Award mentioned above.  My mouth is still watering

Dessert was Vanilla Creme Brûleé served the traditional way.  Eaten that way as well with a slow movement into your mouth, the closing of the eyes as you pull the spoon out again and a "mmmmmm" sigh straight after.

While taking the first picture in the post I caught the eye of a couple of people enjoying drinks at a nearby table.  They called me over (no, not because I was wearing a Batman t-shirt) and started chatting.  It turned out to be Horst Frehse, the hotel's General Manager (on the right) and Phillip Lategan, the MD of Journey Beyond, a big South African inbound tour operator.  Not long and the chat turned into a little photo session with myself and Shelley Pembroke, one of the other bloggers on the tour.  A special touch was that after our meal Mr Frehse came to our table himself to see if everything was satisfactory.  And satisfactory it was indeed.

Disclosure: I had lunch at the Twelve Apostles Hotel as guest of the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa.   I received no additional remuneration to write this post and all views expressed are my own.