Lu-Gerda's Travels

We stayed at the Southern Cross Beach House for the two nights when we visited Plettenberg Bay.   The guesthouse is in a Victorian house next to the beach.   The owners live on the top floor and the guest rooms are on the ground floor.   I was a bit disappointed because the guest rooms do not have a view of the ocean.   We booked the big room and it was lovely.   We had a king size bed, sitting area with desk and a beautiful bathroom.   The bathroom was my favorite part with it’s checkered floor and claw foot bath.   But I forgot to take a picture of it.   Usually I don’t like to take a bath in strange places but I could not resist.   All the windows and doors of the room have wooden blinds that can be closed for privacy. Breakfast was served on the verandah with a beautiful view of the beach.   We could choose from cereals, fruit, yogurt and warm breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms and toast served ...

After the Van Plettenberg Monument  and Old Timber Shed  in Meeding Street we went to look for the old stone church I saw on pictures.   We did not have a map or address but got good directions from a surfer.   We should have guessed that the church would be in Church Street. The St Peter’s Anglican Church was beautiful.   It stood between trees in a pretty garden with the sun shining on the stone walls.   We walked closer and found a sundial, pretty old church bell and even a few old graves around the church.   Unfortunately it was closed and we could not see the inside. I could not find a lot of information about the history of the church but did find: The church is built on the site of a small schoolroom-cum-chapel that was built for Bishop Robert gray’s visit in 1856.   It was destroyed by a gale in 1875. The church was designed by Sophy Gray in 1879. The church was designed by Sophy Gray...

The Plettenberg Bay area was rich in natural forests.   Baron Joachim van Plettenberg was worried about these forests and suggested that a control post must be erected to prevent the over-use of the timber.   The Dutch East India Company started a woodcutter’s post in 1778.   JF Meeding was appointed the first overseer of this post.   In 1786 the Dutch East India Company contracted Johann Jacob Jerling to build a Timber Shed for storage of the timber.   Today the remains of the Old Timber Shed can be found in Meeding Street.   The remains have been partially restored twice.   It is the oldest building in Plettenberg Bay   and was declared a National Monument in 1936.

After a detour to George to fetch my camera  we were back in Plettenberg Bay and was ready for a bit of sightseeing. I found some great ideas of things to do on a “The Firefly Photo Files-blog” .  Our first stop was at the Van Plettenberg monument.     In 1448 Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias named Plettenberg bay “Bahia das Alagoas” or “Bay of the Lagoons”.   In 1576 another Portuguese, Manuel da Mesquita Perestrello named it “Bahia Formosa” or “Bay Beautiful”.   In about 1776 the first Dutch people started to live in the Plettenberg bay area.   During 1778 Baron Joachim van Plettenberg, who was the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in the area.   He decided to give the town his name and since then it was known as Plettenberg Bay. He erected a slate possessional stone to indicate that the bay belonged to the Dutch East India Company.   This stone is now known as the Van Plettenberg Monument.  It was difficult t...

My husband and I both like history. So it was no surprise when we decided to spend our honeymoon in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.   I did some research before we left and had a list with things to do and see but I did not realize how much history the Eastern Cape had.   Between the Frontier Wars, 1820 British Settlers and Anglo-Boer Wars we had a lot to see. I will write about some of the history while posting about the places we visited. We got married in my hometown, George, in the Western Cape and started our honeymoon in Plettenberg Bay (also in the Western Cape) about 85 km away from George.   We arrived in Plett at about 16:00 the afternoon after first opening gifts at my parents’ home. We stayed in a lovely Victorian house, Southern Cross Guest House.   It is next to the beach but we could not see the beach from our room.   When I wanted to take a picture of the room I realized “MY CAMERA IS NOT HERE”.   So after panicking...