Road Trip. Port Elizabeth. More History Part One.

We decided to do the Donkin Heritage walk around the Donkin reserve looking at old buildings and places of interest. There is a book available for R40 that gives you the map and a description of each place. When we saw there were 51 places of interest we thought we might not do them all in one day.
The guide book warned us that certain areas, especially around the Campanile and the Railway. are better done by car or in a large group.

I've already mentioned a bit of the history of the Donkin memorial in a previous blog.
http://fuzzypandaonthemove.blogspot.co.za/2017/12/road-trip-day-30-port-elizaberh.html
The Donkin reserve itself received an extensive makeover in 2011 and 2012. Outdoor artworks and  a tall flagpole were added. When we were in PE on a previous occasion we saw the huge flag being lowered with ceremony by the Prince Alfred's Guards. This time, however, there was no sign of it. The attendants at the tourist office couldn't tell us what had happened to it.

We could enjoy the artworks however. The MBDA's route 67 consists of 67 public Art Works symbolising Nelson Mandela's 67 years of work dedicated to the Freedom of South Africa. There are also 67 steps leading up to the flag pole.

The mosaics on the sides of the steps make pictures

along the side of the lowest steps

Fish-Bird by published poet and former art lecturer Dolla Sepeta who was inspired by the birds that visit the Donkin Reserve as well as the site's view of Algoa Bay. The "Fish-Bird" is 3.8m high, has a wing span of 5m and stretches 6m from tail to head.

My favourite art work was "Election Queue" by The Workplace Architects.  It is made of metal and represents the long line of voters at the 1994 elections.

It snakes down a curved sloping pathway around the flagpole, getting smaller and smaller for perspective, ending at infinity.

I also appreciated the Piazza mosaic by the NMMU ceramic collective. This 470 square meter mosaic represents the multi-cultural and diverse histories of the area as well the diverse fauna and flora.

After descending the 67 steps we saw the St Mary's Cathedral (Not very imposing looking) which opened in 1832 and, not far away, the Main Library.

The building was opened in 1902 and is said to be an excellent example of late Victorian public architecture.
In front of the library is a statue of  Queen Victoria by E Roscoe Mullins of London. In the spate of defacing and removing statues a couple of years ago, it was painted red but has since been restored.

Across the way is the City Hall, built between 1858 and 1861 from the designs of Mr Robert Archibald who became the first Town Engineer when Port Elizabeth was granted Borough status in 1860.
The building was gutted by fire in 1977 and many valuable paintings were lost in the blaze.
It was restored and re opened in 1981.

We turned at the Feather Market Hall which is a conference centre and concert hall but we didn't find an entrance so we couldn't see inside. Then it was up the steep Castle Hill where the pavement is actually a staircase. We were even applauded by a resident for getting up. We were nearly at the top when we noticed a sign saying "Museum" across the road and we side-tracked, grateful for some level ground.

It was No 7 Castle Hill and one of the oldest dwellings in Port Elizabeth and was built for Rev Francis McCleland, the first Colonial Chaplain. The interior presents a picture of domestic life such as may have been enjoyed by any English middle-class family in mid 19th Century Port Elizabeth.

Spirit kettle 1858

Roll top desk of American Oak. 1856. I loved the tiny drawers - just right for paper clips, elastic bands etc.

An underground water tank, filled with rain water run-ff from the roof was the only water supply.

And hand pump

All these old houses have commodes which, for people living in a motor-home with a porta-loo, seems very natural.

After enjoying the old word tranquility, we continued with out walk which was slightly less steep from then on.

Road Trip Day 4 - Aldam Resort

Last night we had a very late supper even though we started the braai as soon as the gazebo was up. 9.30 we finally ate and we were inundated with insects. flying ants swarmed into our motor-home to die, beetles thudded all over the walls. We did eventually switch all the lights off and take a torch outside to try to empty the van of most of the insects but all through the night I was picking up beetles that had landed on me and flinging them to the floor.

We got up late for a leisurely breakfast and watched the audacity of the sparrows coming right under our awning. I hope they were eating dead flying ant bodies.

We had a number of things to catch up on. We needed to pay at reception and get tokens for the washing machine and tumble dryer. I thought I'd cycle although I didn't see reception on the map they gave us. Everybody I asked said, "Go up" I abandoned my bike on the bottom terrace and climbed stairs and walked and climbed more stairs and walked some more. Finally, seemingly at the other end of the resort, we found it. We were so hot and tired we bought ice creams and sat on the deck overlooking the dam.

While we were there, feeling lazy, we decided we might just as well have lunch. I ordered chicken strips and chips and Mr Panda had Russian and chips.

Needless to say this was too much for me and we asked for a takeaway box. Tonight we had leftover chicken pieces, cut up chips, cubed tomatoes and tinned peas, all mixed together with mayonnaise.
I call it "Motorhomers' Mish Mash"

Just after supper a strong wind came up so we decided to take down the gazebo "just in case."
Of course it's very still now but rain has been predicted for Winburg tomorrow.

Tomorrow we head for Bloemfontein.

Fountains and Kings

 

The plan was to get takeaways for supper and then to take them to watch the musical fountains at the Boardwalk.   When we got there we saw the perfect seats outside the Wimpy.   Well, I thought, Wimpy is just about like takeaway.   So some of us procured the table and ordered cappuccinos for 5 while the others went to get their meals from other places.

The sun was just setting and we settled down to enjoy our cappuccinos.

We can’t claim that they didn’t warn us.   On the railings near our table were signs saying that the area could get wet when the fountains are playing.   Well, we have fountains in Randburg – at the Brightwater Commons - and a little bit of spray never bothered me.   It would, in fact, cool us all down because we were having a lovely spate of ideal holiday weather, sunny and hot and sometimes windy. 

Our food was arriving just as the fountains were introduced and we were advised to get our wellies, raincoats and umbrellas and enjoy the show.    Well, this was not a bit of spray!   More like a torrential downpour.   I was wearing an all weather jacket so I put up my hood and zipped up.   Brian evacuated immediately with the tray of food but some of us die-hards stayed put.   And the spectacle was magnificent.

However, when my denims were getting wet and there were so many drops on my camera lens that they interfered with my photography, even the die-hards caved.

We went inside to eat our supper.

The next day we were in the beach area again.   We decided to spend a short while at Kings beach and to investigate the possibility of hiring bicycles to cycle along the beach front.   The beach was much more crowded than Sardina Bay!

After spending about half an hour enjoying the waves and trying to avoid other people enjoying the waves, we made our way along the beach towards the MacArthur Pools.

It turned out that bike hire was R100 per day and we didn’t want to spend a whole day cycling.   We lingered at the flea market and wondered at the chair set in a pool of shallow water.   Some kind of art perhaps?   We thought of sitting in the chair and taking a photo but wondered if it was a tourist trap and somebody would jump out and ask for R20 or R50 for the privilege.

Another sunny day in Port Elizabeth.

Christmas cheer and Sardinia Bay

We stayed in a spacious studio at the Old Cash Store in Sardinia Bay.  In nearby Mount Pleasant somebody had taken a lot of trouble to bring Christmas cheer to the community.

We read about it in the local newspaper and went to have a look.   They had even organised a security firm to hang around in one of their patrol cars.   This reminded me so much of the Christmas we spent in Napier, New Zealand.   There an estate agent had organised a Christmas light competition.   To enter, one  posted the address onto a web site and the rest of the community could go onto the website and plan a tour around the town looking at Christmas lights and voting for the best.   Apparently the competitive element had got out of hand and when we visited, it was just an opportunity to visit the houses that had registered on the website.

This was not the only similarity we notice with Port Elizabeth and New Zealand.   The beauty of the scenery and the drives along the coast were another.

3km from where we stayed is Sardinia bay Beach.   We went early because for all it is the Friendly City, Port Elizabeth is also the windiest city in South Africa so if you don’t get to the beach early, the wind picks up later in the morning making beach activities less pleasant.

From the parking lot there is first a high sand dune to negotiate before going downhill to the beach.   The view, of course, was stunning.

Although it is the height of the holiday season, the beach is not overly crowded as some of the more popular beaches are.

 

 

 

We had brought a portable shelter and spent a lovely couple of hours.   We were about 500m from the official swimming area but when some other people started swimming in the waves I did too.   I was very impressed with the lifeguard.   While I went back to the shelter to fetch my inflatable pillow to more seriously ride the waves, he came all the way across from the swimming area to tell the 3 remaining swimmers to move to the designated area if they wanted to swim.   He obviously took his job seriously.

The journey back to the car was daunting.   The sand dune was much higher from the beach side.

 

However, after we had successfully completed the challenge, we treated ourselves to an ice cream.