A trip to South Africa’s ‘Home of Legends’

Port Elizabeth’s Dive Centre is the only five star dive centre in the Eastern Cape and gives outdoor and water sports enthusiasts intense adrenalin rush from their lineup of activities, including adventure boating, ocean safari, snorkeling, kite boarding and kayaking among others. For an art enthusiast, Route 67 is a must see in Port Elizabeth. […]

Port Elizabeth’s Dive Centre is the only five star dive centre in the Eastern Cape and gives outdoor and water sports enthusiasts intense adrenalin rush from their lineup of activities, including adventure boating, ocean safari, snorkeling, kite boarding and kayaking among others.
For an art enthusiast, Route 67 is a must see in Port Elizabeth. The trail, ‘guarded’ by a metal sculpture of Nelson Mandela, is so-called in honour of the 67 years which Madiba put into public service. The piece is a combination of urban and visual art motifs and designs all depicting, the country’s heritage while giving visitors and encounter with South Africa’s history, with the magnificent  colours and patterns tiled up to focus on its post-apartheid era.
For anyone without a height phobia, the 204 steps to the observation room of Campanile Memorial tower, provides a magnificent view of the town around the habour and its surroundings at above 52metres above the city. An additional treat is its chiming clock and the fact that the monument contains the largest carillon of bells in South Africa.
Approaching The Boardwalk, which overlooks the Indian Ocean, betrays no detail of the vast estate beyond its gates. The over 800 light bulbs biased around its rooftops immediately draw attention to it at nighttime, in addition to its musical water fountain display in multi-coloured multimedia show. The Boardwalk hosted almost a thousand guests at this year’s edition of the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), offering them enviable experiences including accommodation, casino, restaurants and surfing.
NO. 7 Castle Hill built in 1825 became a museum after becoming a national monument 1962. It is one of the oldest surviving cottages built in Port Elizabeth. It was the residence of Rev. Francis McCleland and his family. The interior of the building gives tourists an impression of the domestic life  of a middle class English family of 19th century Port Elizabeth. Imaginations run wild as well as curiosity is provoked as one wonders or appreciates the furnishings, toys, kitchen utensils as well as other household items and what their place would have been in today’s world.
Nigerians, generally, always want to eat some home food whenever they are away from their domain. But PE’s Eldorado, a Nigerian restaurant is anything but an Eldorado. The first welcome to Eldorado a Nigerian restaurant located in the city centre is stench of urine and uncollected waste.
This is accompanied by loud sounding traditional eastern Nigerian songs from speakers with the bass amplifiers, overshadowing the voice and lyrics of the singer amidst hearty and somewhat drunken laughter of patrons seated to the left of the restaurant.
As our reporter and other Nigerian guests complained about the hygiene of the environment, a man advanced towards them between a bounce and stagger, pointing in the direction of the music as the more habitable part of the restaurant where they could have their meal.
With the noise and sight, the right side which had people eating in it was a better option, but just enough to give them the opportunity to express their displeasure to the lady running the restaurant about the state of her environment. Her excuse was, “you know we are working with these foreigners. It is not easy to manage them. When you tell them what to do, they do something else.”
For a Nigerian yearning for some home cooking, except you are willing to pretend that you are eating a meal from Eldorado in the comfort of your living room, it would be best to find alternatives. ‘In Port Elizabeth, you can experience the three seasons of the year in one day.’ These were the first cautionary words about the kind of weather our reporter was to experience as she arrived in the town founded in 1820.
Living up to this description, our reporter woke up to a hot weathered Sunday morning, which simmered into a cool afternoon and then stormed into an extremely chilly and windy evening it was almost impossible to leave her hotel.
The city which was founded to house British settlers, is located in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, and is popularly referred to as the ‘Home of Legends. ’ This is so because it is from this region that the country’s great leaders like Walter Sisulu, Chris Hani, Steve Biko, Govan Mbeki, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela, among others, originate. Till date, the architecture, landscape, life style, economic and employment statuses still carry vivid evidence of South Africa of the 19th century when the ‘Windy City’ came to be.
PE, as it is called for short, forms part of the 1.3 million population of the Nelson Mandela Bay which it is a part of, and first started from what is now called Algoa Bay. A hotel staff where our reporter was lodged on Brookes Hill Drive, explained that the Portuguese were the first foreigners to visit the area.
They included Bartholomeu Dias, who came to St Croix Island in Algoa Bay in 1488, followed by another explorer, Vasco da Gama who landed at Bird Island in 1497. He said at this time, not much happened in the area. ‘Algoa’ is a name originated from India’s Goa, a Portuguese colony, and was translated as ‘to Goa,’ meaning that it was this port ships left for Goa during favourable weather conditions. This was part of their plan to key into the thriving trade of the Arabians in East African coasts like Zanzibar. Overlooking the Bay, is the lighthouse which once guided ships to Port Elizabeth’s habour.
PE whose current mayor, Danny Jordan, is a past recipient of the annual Daily Trust African of the year award, has several historic monuments and sites, emanating from its trade and colonisation, among other experiences in its history, which tourists flock to.
The town is home to an 18th century fort, Fort Frederick which was named after the then Duke of York. It was built in 1799, during the Napoleonic Wars in the first British occupation of the area. The purpose of the fort was to protect the colony from French troops. It is now one of the town’s most visited monuments.