A day trip to Grahamstown, Bathurst, Port Alfred, and Kenton On Sea

Grahamstown was founded in 1812 as a military fort. In 1820 about 4,000 settlers came from Europe (mostly British artisans and craftsman). Similar to US settlers in Oklahoma & Kansas, the settlers were a hearty bunch. They were mostly unprepared for the life they were about to undertake. They were overdressed, inspired by god and riches and managed to overcome hardships to impose their will on the land and the indigenous people until history was made. After all, they had little choice, they could not go home. The quote on the Settlers Museum wall says it best, "We must take root and grow or die where we stand." Grahamstown is also known for its excellent boarding schools (children ages 7 - 18) and Rhodes University. Theo and Tony both attended Kingston Boarding School (pictured below is their dorm and library). It was an all-boys school and they would sneak over to the girls school in the drainage ditches. In the Observatory Museum, we looked at the city through a camera obscura. In 1882 the camera obscura was built by a jeweler and watchmaker. The device used a mirror, lense and turret providing a 360-degree reflected image of the town on a viewing table in the tower. Before telephones and tv, the camera obscura was used to find people on the streets below. Check it out below...

In Bathurst, the Pig and Whistle Pub and Hotel is a national monument and is the longest contiuously operated pub in the country. They opened in 1832 and it still has old-fashioned, country charm.

Next we visited Summerville Farm which has the world's biggest pineapple at 16.7 meters high.

Of course pineapples were originally discovered in the Brazilian Amazon in the late 1400's. In Europe, pineapples were reserved for the wealthy and only served to the royal court and those in power. The photo below (left) is of rondavels- typical african houses. Along our drive, there were several dairy farms scattered along the rolling hills. The region smells like the midwest!

The Kowie River runs through Port Alfred. We stopped for a quick look at the river and the multi-million rand houses. It was quite windy. Then it was off to the pleasant Kenton-On-Sea where families have owned houses since the 1930's. Bushman's River runs to the west and provides a boating and save swimming holes.