This morning we got up early to go to the airport where we took a short flight (about 1:40) to Port Elizabeth, about 1000 kilometers from Johannesburg. It is also marked on the map in the first email on the trip that also shows the antipode for San Francisco. Port Elizabeth marked the furthest — roughly speaking — distance we were from San Francisco.
Port Elizabeth, often abbreviated as PE, is known as the Windy City and I think it is far enough away from Chicago, and Chicago from it, that there is probably little confusion about two cities with the same nickname. It is amusing that if you do a Google search on Windy City, at least when I just did, Lord Google assumes you’re talking about Chicago. Nonetheless we did feel enough wind while we were there, although I have also been in much windier places. And it was winter.
As you would expect, Port Elizabeth is on the ocean, although it is more properly along Algoa Bay which opens out into the Indian Ocean. The name Algoa comes from the early times when the place was along the way between Europe and India and people heading through were often bound to Goa.
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| Port Elizabeth Street |
We did not spend any real time in PE, just driving from the airport, through the city, and then heading west along the start of what is known as the Garden Route (which we will discuss in greater detail later). As a result we also did not get to check out whether PE is also deserving of another of its nicknames, the Friendly City. There are long stretches through town where there are lots of buildings along the shore.
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| Port Elizabeth - Road Along the Shore |
I’d invite you to look carefully at the above picture. Does this really look like your preconception of Africa? In fact, except for the fact that people are driving facing the opposite way than we are used to, you could be in many US cities based on this picture. And we can see that the construction of ugly, tall, box-like apartment buildings is not confined to the US either.
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| Port Elizabeth - Ugly Apartment Building |
I was charmed by this statue in a park along the way and I wish I knew more about this woman, but she’ll have to remain a mystery for the moment.
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| Statue of Woman in Port Elizabeth Park |
One additional note about our tour leader, in case you weren't convinced by the previous post about his inappropriateness. He noted that the unemployment rate in Port Elizabeth was higher than in some other parts of South Africa (in checking with Lord Google I find the rates for Cape Town and Johannesburg are about 25% while that for Port Elizabeth is over 36%). And then he said, supposed in criticism of the current government of South Africa, "One thing you could say for Hitler was that he provided full employment." Now this comment is wrong in so many ways that it is not even worthy of refutation. We'll get a few more of his comments later in the tour. (If this comment stirs you in certain ways, please note that this blog does have comments enabled; and I do welcome your comments at any time.)
And then we find ourselves outside of the built-up city and driving through countryside, along the southern coast of South Africa.
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| Countryside Nearing the Garden Route |
For a way we passed through farming and ranching lands, again familiar to the eyes of someone from the US.
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| South Africa Farm |
As we turned a bit inland the land became more lush and wild, although again still nothing that called out to me saying, “You’re in Africa.”
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| More Lush and Wild Land |
That would change soon through encounters with a few animals, although the land itself, and even most of the animals, wouldn’t give you the notion that you were in Africa. But, then, Africa is a big place — it is a continent. And we were far south so that we were in the temperate area far from the equator.
More plants and animals tomorrow. After all, we are in Africa <g>.
Link to Full Resolution Photos
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