Blogs from Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 5

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

Molweni umhlobos! Nijani???? We are still frolicking along the garden route, and actually now in Port Elizabeth. . . Since my last entry, I have managed to catch my breath (after the ostrich), then lose it again (after the bungee jump)....Yes, I jumped off the tallest bridge in the world (216 meters - i think that's over 700 feet) - anyway, that was REALLY, REALLY scary and I think I reached a point of hysteria before I got pushed off (or jumped, I can't remember - there's video for proof though - we can figure it out together) - pics not included today, sorry!!...That was definitely the highlight of my Tuesday. Let's see, in the past couple of days I also got to play with a baby cheetah, go ziplining in the Tsitsikamma falls, spend the ... read more

We got up this morning, put on our yellow jerseys and headed towards Port Elizabeth for the Brazil - Holland game. The was due to start at 4pm, so we made sure to be at the stadium by 1pm because I wanted to try and meet up with some Brazilian friends I met in South Korea in 2002 (we saw each other in Germany in 2006 as well). We went straight to the Budweiser Beer Garden and had some beers with some Dutch fans we had met. They were all very nice to talk to, all dressed up in orange and with full make-up on. All they wanted was a good game, and if Holland lost to Brazil, no problem, because they are supposed to lose to Brazil. I told them that I was concerned about ... read more

Up at 6 to walk the elephants. What an awakening. This is something we are glad to have had the opportunity to experience. There was a foreign TV crew here filming the elephants play football. Harry had more control than Rooney. The Owner of the Park told us GMTV would be with them on Tuesday doing a live broadcast. We are miffed that we won’t be around for that, as we would have put our England gear on and waved the flag for England. The photos of the elephants walking around the water hole, in the sunrise, don’t do justice to the actual scene. It was indescribable. Unfortunately my camera isn’t good enough to give a true impression but I hope you get the idea. We were joined on our elephant ride by some English people ... 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