Nelson Mandela Bay – weekend 4

Congratulations to Robynne Bosch & Siziwe Mnukwa!  You each win a set of five x day passes (valued at R1000), complements of Kingfisher FM & Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism .

There’s otwo more sets up for grabs, those we’ll give away next week.  😀

The day pass gives you access to a whole range of activities & discounts.  It is a fun & affordable way to travel Nelson Mandela Bay.

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LOCATION: Nelson Mandela Bay is located in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.  It is 763 km east of Cape Town.

DATE VISITED: 21 – 24 September 2012 (Spring)

WHAT WE DROVE: A Fiat Punto complements of Maritime Motors

WHAT WE DID: This was an exciting weekend.  We visited the South African Airforce Museum, Bayworld, The Donkin Reserve, Ron Belling Art Museum, St Georges Park & St Croix Motor Museum.  Monday the 24th was a public holiday & we took part in an exciting Travel Quest, a race against time from clue to clue.

WHERE WE STAYED: The little house on the not so little hill

WHO GUIDED US: Craig Duffield from Mosaic Tourism

RECOMENDATION: Nelson Mandela Bay is the ultimate family destination.  There is a whole lot of history to be discovered.  This was our fourth weekend exploring our city – a tourist could easily spend a whole week experiencing new & interesting trips.  Come visit Nelson Mandela Bay!

WEBSITE: Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism

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Afropolitan.

A good word to describe Nelson Mandela Bay.

Urban.

Culturally savvy.

Aware of European influences.

Deeply rooted in the soil of this continent.

This past weekend, as we experienced re-invented urban spaces & vintage museums, it dawned on us: Nelson Mandela Bay is utterly unique.

Johannesburg is the New York or London of our continent.

Cape Town our Paris.

Nelson Mandela Bay has no twin.

Nothing to compare it with.

It was in this city that the South African Airways was born.

It was here that motor manufacturing started on our continent.

This we learnt as we spent time at the South African Airforce Museum & St Croix Motor Museum.

Our city’s Bayworld is nothing like Florida’s Marineland.

It does offer an intimacy nowhere else to be found.

And perhaps, as tomorrow comes, this intimacy will be retained, even if it grows into a large-scale ocenarium.

Anyone interested in Africa’s past, would do well to spend time at the Donkin Reserve.

Here you’ll discover one of Africa’s oldest lighthouses.

A love-story of an officer who became a gentleman while longing for the partner who died too soon.

You’ll experience the story of freedom, creatively depicted in art & sculpture, walkways & picnic spots.

It is a positive space.

A meeting place.

Loaded with emotion.

Opportunity.

Remembrance.

Hope.

Perhaps none of the tourist brochures & websites speak of Nelson Mandela Bay & art in the same breath?

They’ve not been to the Donkin Reserve or the many other spaces with public art scattered everywhere.

They’ve not spent an afternoon at the Ron Belling Art Gallery.

Or the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum.

Or the Epsac Art Gallery.

They’ve not taken in a show at the oldest Opera House on the African Continent.

Or the Ford Little Theatre.

Or Manville Open Air Theatre.

They’ve not been mesmerized by the sounds of talented musicians busking in surprising places, un-affected by the commercialization of an industry too easily consumed by money & fame.

Culturally savvy.

More than you could ever imagine.

Have you walked St Georges Park?

Sheltered by trees planted lifetimes ago.

This city has a Campenile, which commemorates the arrival of the British Settlers, comfortably co-existing with three Mosques in close proximity to each other.

It has a Red Location Museum, which remembers the injustice of apartheid, comfortably co-existing with two Concentration Camp Commemorative sites, which remembers the injustices of the South African War (1899 -1902).

This city is more than just more beaches.

It is the heart of African optimism.

The rhythm of a new way gradually infecting new souls.

It is a good place to live.

A good place to visit.

A must experience for any traveler who wants to taste more than the plastic of piña colada‘s on overcrowded brochure-beaches.

We are fortunate to spend our days here.

To travel from this city.

To always come home.