Yellow flower (crab) spider

Leaving the office the other day I noticed a yellow spider sitting on a plant close to the door.  Don't ask me how I spotted him, I just did.  Turns out it was a Yellow Flower (or Crab) Spider.  They are of the family Misumena and can either be yellow or white depending on the flower they are hunting on.  During early summer young males can be quite small and easily overlooked, but females grow up to 10 mm (excluding legs) with males reach 5 mm at most.

At the time I assumed the object on this picture was an egg sack and I have a feeling I may be right.  Older females require large amounts of relatively large prey to produce the best possible clutch of eggs. 

 

Generally it is often very hard even for a searching human to recognize one of these spiders on a yellow flower so an insect wanting to land on a flower occupied by one of these better make sure his will is in order. 

The magnificence that is Addo Elephant National Park

I've been in the tourism industry for 16 years and first started out working as a tourist guide back in 1998.  Back then I used to go to Addo Elephant National Park sometimes as often as 5 or 6 times a week and people used to ask if I didn't get tired of going there.  I did get tired of the drive to and from the park but I would never get tired of the park itself.  It quickly became one of my favorite places to take tourists and I enjoyed ever new day as much as the one before, getting as excited as my guests when we encountered elephants or other game.  These days I don't get to visit the park anywhere close to what I would like to, but when I do I make the most of it.  I often think people who have never been to Addo don't realise how special the park really is and those comparing it to Kruger does it a great injustice.  No it's not Kruger but it offers magnificent sightings, amongst it the best wild African elephant sightings in the world.  Tourist guides like my friend Craig Duffield of Mosiac Tourism calls Addo his office.  I often wish I still did.

Driving on the dunes at Brakkeduine

Boys will be boys and when it comes to boys and their 4x4 toys there is no stopping them.  When the South African government banned driving on beaches both the angling and 4x4 fraternities took a big knock.  The anglers couldn't go as far along the beaches as they used to or had to find overland shortcuts while the 4x4 okes had to stick to mountain trails and off road paths.  There is one place I know of where the boys can test their toys and sand driving skills though.  Brakkeduine close to Oyster Bay (and St Francis Bay) in the Eastern Cape. 

 

Brakkeduine offers a beautiful grassed campsite on the banks of a dam with a long slippery slide and zipline into the water.  But it's the natural inland dune field that attracts 4x4 enthusiasts to Brakkeduine.  They offer guided trips following a set route with drivers given the opportunity to test their skills going up and down the dunes either on the straight or around turns, pushing their vehicles to the max. 

 

The trips are led by experienced 4x4 drivers who know the dunes like the back of their hands and will show the way to approach each "obstacle" first before the others attempt it.  They come prepared to assist if anything happens, anything being a wheel popping off the rim or getting stuck on top of the dune like the one on the picture above.

 

 

I'm not a huge 4x4 enthusiast and don't own a 4x4, but we have camped at Brakkeduin on two occasions and both times I tagged along on a trip into the dunes.  I may not have had a chance to drive the route, but I had lots of fun taking photographs of it. 

 

 As the whole group stops at each obstacle it gives the drivers and passengers the opportunity to get out and watch the other vehicles.  The amount of jokes and chirps heard on the trip is amazing as they guys gun each other when they fail an attempt.

The very last stop is at the Rollercoaster where the drivers get a chance to really play on a slightly longer route than the previous obstacles.  If you are into 4x4'ing then Brakkeduine is an experience that you just can't afford to miss.  Specifically because of the opportunity to drive on dunes.

Karoo scene at the foothills of the Zuurberg

The Karoo is a hauntingly beautiful place.  A lot of people may find it boring but most see a beauty that is often described differently by every person.  Wide open spaces with blue skies above, a couple of sheep grazing on the sparse green grass around a wind pump filled cement dam, late winter aloes in bloom with a Karoo koppie in the background, farm workers' children playing in the dust close to a flat roof worker's house, somebody walking down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and so I can go on.  The scene in the picture was taken in the Karoo just north of the Zuurberg Pass. In the background is the 150 year old Ann's Villa.

Mohair yarn strands

The Hinterveld Mohair Mill Tour in Uitenhage is not your normal run of the mill (excuse the pun) tour, but visitors go there expecting one thing and leaving with a whole different impression.  The factory is also heaven for photographers with so many interesting objects and angles like this one of all the colourful mohair yarn strands going into the weaving machine, turning it into exquisite blankets.

No 7 Castle Hill historical museum

Sailing into Algoa Bay as one of the 1820 British Settlers, Reverend Francis McCleland would have been standing on deck looking out over the bay towards the beach, little knowing what awaited him in the Cape Colony and how he would influence what would become Port Elizabeth.  Rev McCleland became the colonial chaplain in Port Elizabeth and oversaw the building of St Mary’s Anglican Church (later declared a cathedral) which was completed in 1834. Only a couple of years before, in 1827, he bought a piece of land on Castle Hill for three guineas (three pounds and three shillings) and built a house for his family.  A building which is one of the oldest surviving Settler cottages in Port Elizabeth and today is a historic museum.

 

 

 

Visitors are met at the door by a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable Grizel Hart who is the curator of what is now the No 7 Castle Hill Museum.  No 7 opened as a historic museum in 1965 and is furnished in period to show a picture of domestic life as enjoyed by an English middle class family in

mid-19th Century Port Elizabeth.  It really is the kind of place where kids will discover things they have never seen before in their lives while older folk will be reminded of items their grandmothers still had in their houses.  While Grizel shows you around you may just spot a couple of kids with sheets of paper in their hands moving from room to room like their looking for something.  Kids visiting the museum each receive a treasure hunt sheet of paper with drawings of furniture pieces and items found throughout the house to try and track down.  It's the best way to keep the kids interested and learning.
 

 

By far my favourite room in the museum is the old downstairs kitchen.  It really feels like every time I visit there is something new (or should we say old?) to see.  So of the things I remember from my grandmother's kitchen from years ago while others most people have probably never seen.  The ingeniousness of most of the old items does baffle one though because often you wonder why we can't have tools like that now.

 

The museum's courtyard with it's cobblestones is another of my favourites.  The courtyard has a working water pump.  Water is gathered in the well from the roof and pumped out by hand for use.  I bet all the kids visiting the museum want to have a go at the pump and I have to say I often do as well.  Best of all (said wearing my Geocacher hat), there is a Geocache close by as well.   

Jurassic Park at Bayworld

Did I stumble on a long lost valley filled with dinosaurs?  Did somebody finally invent a time machine that allows one to go back to the time of the dinosaurs?  Did I get invited to the set of Jurassic Park 4? No, no and... no.  I visited Bayworld in Port Elizabeth.  Bayworld has an very interesting section by the Snake Park that has life size moving dinosaurs.  Every kid's dream.