Scenes From the Eastern Cape

I’m in the Eastern Cape at the moment. The Eastern Cape is one of my favorite South African provinces; the people are friendly, the pace is slow, and the scenery is beautiful in a non-dramatic kind of way. It’s seriously cold though, especially in the evening. There’s frost on my car windshield in the morning, and the mountains are capped with snow. (By the way, ice-scrapers don’t exist here so forget about scraping the windshield. You just turn your car on and wait for the frost to melt.)

I spent most of the last two days visiting rural villages in the Queenstown area, about two hours inland from East London. I’ll probably have more say about what I’m doing later, but for now here are a few photos that I shot along the way.

A man and his pipe.

The Eastern Cape is known for its colorfully painted rondavels. Check out the snow on the hills above.

Kids going home from school in a village called Hackney.

Two guys and another colorful house.

Dog in a doorway.

Cooking up some traditional African beer.

This puppy’s name is Madam.

Presbyterian Church of Africa.

Can you tell I like the colorful houses?

I thought I’d include one colorless photo, of the cutest kitten in the Eastern Cape.

That’s all for now. Time to turn up the electric blanket and burrow in for the night at my cute Queenstown B&B.


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Sunday Morning at 44 Stanley Avenue

How have I never blogged about 44 Stanley Avenue, the coolest shopping and dining complex in Joburg, which is only five minutes from my house?

44 Stanley sign surrounded by trees
The entrance to 44 Stanley Avenue.

I guess it’s wrong to say I’ve never blogged about 44 Stanley; I’ve mentioned it countless times over the years (see here and here) when writing about specific restaurants or shops that are there. But I’ve never written a dedicated post about 44 Stanley as a destination and it’s about time I did – especially now, with the holidays upon us.

Photos From Braamfontein's Indwe Park

I’ve been dreadfully uninspired lately, struggling to think of anything I want to blog about despite having a long list of great ideas (many of which you, my readers, provided in September). I’m finding it hard to feel positive about life at the moment. But on Saturday Thorsten and I got the chance to visit Indwe Park, an indigenous garden and sculpture park in Braamfontein, and I knew I had my topic for today.