Blogs from Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa

Welcome to our first blog! We are enjoying our last few days in the Friendly City with friends, family, and lots of sunshine! Our long checklists are (almost) ticked and we have said goodbye to our home and hope that the weeds don’t take over while we are away (our tenants consist of 1 mom, 1 baby and a computer guy, hope they look after our garden!). We start on Thursday morning (PE guys, we fly out at 11:35 so we’ll be at the airport at 10:30) with a scenic tour of a large portion of the world – Cape Town (landing at 13:00, leaving again at 18:50), over Africa to Qatar and then back in the direction we came from to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Total flying time: 35hours, 30 mins; a perfect recipe for deep ... read more

Obwohl ich das eigentlich gar nicht vorhatte, starte ich einen Blog, um alle meine Erlebnisse in Afrika für euch (und für mich) festzuhalten. Flug: Der Flug war relativ unspektakulär. Emirates ist eine gute Fluggesellschaft, aber meiner Meinung nach nicht herausragend, zum mindestens vom Sitzabstand her. Das Unterhaltungsprogramm und das Essen waren aber tadellos. Von meinen beiden doch etwas längeren Zwischestopps fand ich den in Dubai schlimmer, hauptsächlich, weil es einfach mitten in der Nacht war. In Johannisburg waren alle unglaublich nett, selber das Gepäck wieder einchecken zu müssen war auch kein Problem, da man nur einmal kurz um die Decke laufen musste. So riesengroß wie beschrieben ist der Flughafen nicht, oder ich habe nur einen kleinen Teil gesehen. Insgesamt gingen die sechs Stunden da schnell herum. Der Flug mit SAA war sehr viel komfortabler, aber schnell ... read more

The bus turned up and was totally empty! We were the only people on it for a little while, but we picked up 2 more passangers in the Drakensberg mountains on the way to Durban, 2 guys from Holland, Bart and Kinsing. We chatted on the way. We stayed in a place called Hippo Hide and arrived just before sunset. The 4 of us had booked in the same hostel, so we walked together to the supermarket and cooked dinner together since it made it cheaper. We went to sleep after watching a bunch of big bang theory episodes together. Next morning we had brekky together early and took the bazbus together at 6.30am. We got off the bus at a tiny village called Chintsa on the coast, beautiful place! Buccaneers backpackers has the best view ... read more

We stopped in P.E. for just a night; with us only be there for a matter of ours before heading off to Jeffreys Bay. Although the hostel in P.E. was more like someones house. In fact it belonged to this lovely, but eccentric old lady who was delighted to have a Scot living under her roof, as she proclaimed that she was Irish (despite having a very thick SA accent) she gave the three of us the best room to sleep in (despite her having already told another group they could sleep there) and even cooked us breakfast first thing in the morning (which is not normally included in the price). Despite her having only known us for less than an hour, she told us in great detail of herself and her family (such as - ... read more

People we have met have told us that PE was the pits. We have found it to be quite a lively resort, it has an English sea side feel about it. Some think like Clacton and some like Eastbourne ha ha. Bit of news. Dumb and Dumber may not be able to find their way from A to B, but we can sniff out the England Team Hotel in PE. The security around it was a sight to see. We asked a burly security agent what time the Team would arrive and he told us between 4 and 5. Right. We would be back, to have a word. In the afternoon Bafana Bafana were playing and Andy was in town with some of his employees. We met up with Andy and he offered to keep our ... read more

As usual I was up early and as I had nothing planned that day I went to McDonalds for breakfast then visited Bayworld. I was one of the few people there that morning so I was able to spend about four hours chatting with various scientists and curators about Dolphins, African Penguins and Cape Fur Seals. I then met the curator responsible for fish and spent some time discussing fish care and watching him feed the tropicals, I couldn’t believe the size of some of those fish they were huge. The curator then pointed out a fish that just turned up in the tank one day; nobody at the aquarium has any idea where it came from. I also saw the Knysna seahorse, which is found only in one small bay down the coast. The park ... read more