Posts Tagged ‘Nelson Mandela Bay’
Prickly Pear Festival – Uitenhage – February 2010
When: 27 & 28 February 2010 Venue: Cuyler Hofstede Farm
16 tonnes of bristling fruit makes this a prime prickly pageant! But this spiky little Mexican fruit hasn’t always had a smooth history in South Africa.
Initially introduced as fodder for stock and hedging, these fruity fellas thrived under the South African sun and went forth and multiplied. So much so, that in 1937 the Eastern Cape Agricultural Board declared the crop an ‘alien undesirable’ that had to be erradicated. Half a century later there was an about turn and now the prickly ‘cactus pear’ or ‘Indian fig’ enjoys a legitimate crop status.
In 1987 the Cuyler Manor Museum held the first Prickly Pear Festival and attendance has grown to over 15 000 visitors. Today the Uitenhage Museum (comprising Drostdy Museum, Old Railway Station Museum and the Cuyler Manor Museum) is also the only institution with a licence to distill raw spirit from the prickly pear.
This fun family festival is usually held in late February or early March at Cuyler Hofstede farm near Uitenhage, just outside of Port Elizabeth (The Eastern Cape’s Nelson Mandela Bay).
Kids will find plenty of cool things to do.
Grumbling tummies won’t go hungry and you will be spoilt for choice with an array of yummy traditional food such as ginger beer, pancakes, potjiekos, home-made jam, a spit braai and fish braai, bunnychow and home-made puddings on offer.
Of course the star of the show features as a prime ingredient and you can buy all manor of ‘pear products’ ranging from pickles and jams to prickly pear witblits, the local moonshine distilled in 19th Century copper stills.
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Ironman 2010 – Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay)
Where: Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay)
When: 25 April 2010 - 07:00 am to 12:00 am
Accommodation: Homeleigh Halt – Walmer, Port Elizbeth
Adrenaline, testosterone, steely willpower and entertainment merge for a gutsy duo of show and sport. The Sunshine Coast is getting amped for the IRONMAN South Africa April 2010!
The gruelling challenge involves a 3,8km swim, 180km cycle race and a 42.2km run.
Athletes from around the globe and South Africa will be descending on Port Elizabeth to find out if they have what it takes.
The swim will be a rectangular 1.9 km route in the sea, which will be repeated twice. Sea conditions are excellent as the course is situated in a bay. Sea temperatures range between 17 to 25 degrees Celsius for this time of the year. The route will be a double lap off Hobie Beach in an anti-clockwise direction. The cut-off time for the swim is 09:20am
From Hobie Beach, you cycle along the coast for 3km towards the city. You will climb for 10km to reach the highest point of 183 meters above sea level, this is a gentle continuous climb. From here it is downhill to the 20km mark. Gentle rolling hills occur to the turn around point at 34km mark. It is then rolling hills all the way to the 40km mark where it is downhill to the coast. The route is then relatively flat along the coast back to transition at 60km. You need to complete the three loops on race day.
The run will be a three loop course of 14.07km along Marine Drive. The run route is a very fast flat route with no hills through the top gate of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and out through the bottom gate of the University and back towards transition.
The total cut-off time is 12:00am (midnight) – 17 hours after race start. Eish!
Have you entered the 2010 Ironman South Africa? Entries will remain open until the 31 January 2010 at midnight (SA Time).
Event website: www.ironmansouthafrica.com
Homeleigh Halt Guest House welcomes Ironman competitors.
Coastal & Marine Conference
The 6th International Coastal & Marine Tourism Congress (CMT) is to be held in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa from 23 to 26 June, 2009.
International divers report viewing more marine species per dive in Algoa Bay than a weeks diving in some of the world’s most popular dive spots.
It was the legend of Prester John that brought Bartholomeu Dias to Algoa Bay more than 500 years ago. Prester John, so the legend said, founded a prosperous kingdom of great beauty and wealth in an unknown location where peace reigned and man lived in harmony with strange creatures alongside the fountain of youth.
We believe that this great beauty and wealth is not gold bullion or sunken treasure but rather a marine environment second to none just waiting to be discovered by every visitor with a desire to explore our silent world.
