I ended staying in Port Elizabeth for three days.
It not the most interesting of cities, but It was a good place to take a bit of a pause. As I noted in my post about the Addo Elephant Park, it is one the major industrial centres in the RSA. It has two ports and automotive manufacturing and assembly plans.
Hostel
The Island Vibe Hostel is in one of the richer suburban areas on the beach. It is a house that has been slightly modified to be a hostel. It is a very large house with a pool, Jacuzzi, a huge kitten and very large bedrooms.
The owners, an Indian couple, told that me they had bought the house with the specific intention to convert it into a hostel.
Walk along the beach
The hostel was about 700 metres inland from the beach. There is boardwalk that runs along the beach. It was late afternoon when I checked in and the owners of the hostel told me that there was a good restaurant about 500 metres along the beach.
They said that it would “be fine to walk there, but if I was still out as it was getting dark, I should probably get a taxi back home”.
The board walk was very popular with lots of people, almost exclusively white, walking, jogging or cycling.
I found the restaurant and had a reasonable meal.
Walk into Downtown
The next day I decided to walk into the downtown area, which is about 5 kilometres along the beach from the hostel.
As with the previous evening there were a lot white people walking and jogging. There were also a reasonable number of people various parts of the beach. There was a number of cafés and restaurants near a pier. Further along, I found the casino and large sporting complex on the beach.
As I approached that downtown I passed some old fuel tanks and dilapidated rail lines. There were very few other pedestrians and was definitely the only white person walking.
To get into the downtown area you have to pass under highway overpass. There was broken glass all over the footpath and a strong smell of urine.
The downtown area has some impressive old buildings. However, it does have the feeling of being run down. The shops were selling ‘cheap’ item including very basic clothing. I decided to walk back to the ‘first world’.
Yet another Good Lunch
Found a really good restaurant near the pier. It is almost impossible to spent more than AUD 30 on a meal and a couple of drinks.
Casino
I checked out the casino and the adjoining hotel. It is fairly flash. There were the usual miserable people playing poker machines. Gamblers are the same the world over.
I noted that there was desk were you could leave your guns. Hmmmm.
Flickr Link
https://www.flickr.com/gp/twwilko_photos/1949Ys
billrider2013 