We have journeyed on to Port Elizabeth from Cape Town and Knysna and I have had numerous frustrations during the week we have been here.port Elizabeth is where I lived very happily for 35+ years. It doesn’t have THE mountain but it does have amazing beaches, good doctors and most importantly my remaining family here. However as Capetown has boomed in tourism and business, it has capitalised on the success and is a thriving, growing exciting city with a real throbbing heartbeat. In contract at the other end of the scales Port Elizabeth has declined and is on life support! It has been badly managed by successive ANC governments (CT is governed by the DA) and each year I shake my head at the failure of undelivered promises and corruption that has robbed this once wonderful place of its success!
The frustrations are many and I have labelled these WTF moments for obvious reasons 😉
The roads - oh my word what happened! There are pot holes galore in-between the numerous speed humps and what happened to road markings! The speed humps are often invisible as they are not marked and the tarmac so bleached and the road lines so faded that they are the same colour. This together with street lamps that don’t work make for a hazardous driving experience! WTF!
The standard of driving - aggressive to say the least to the point of lawless! I shook my head in disbelief at the behaviour of motorists and felt so disappointed! You can blame the government for the state of the roads but you can’t blame anyone for the bad behaviour of motorists but the citizens of PE. WTF!
The service in shops was frustrating! When you get to a till and there is no barcode or prices on goods what are you supposed to do? This only happened to me in PE and not only once or twice. I walked out of more than one shop without what I wanted and shopped for because it wasn’t labelled when I got to the till. Clicks being the worst offender! It was I there as well that I was chastised for sampling a perfume spray on my hand - how are you supposed to buy anything if you can’t try it? WTF! In most restaurants the food was mediocre and the service abysmal so we found ourselves going to the same places - Blue Vibes in Seaview because both the food and service was great, Merak (new place in Walmer) was excellent and Mug and Bean in Walmer Park because you know what you are going to get.
We are now in Jeffrey’s Bay when the state of the roads is worse year upon year! The beaches in both PE and JBay are world class, the weather is amazing and the people mostly wonderful humans so why oh why oh why is the Eastern Cape not capitalising on this to make a tourist destination that people will flock to and bring their money to spend and inject into the economy and create jobs. Yes you have cruise ships docking here - we saw a few but those visitors are off the boat and straight up the N2 to Addo because there is zero reason for them to head into PE. I just shake my head in disbelief. WTF indeed…….
I know that I will heave a sigh of relief when I pass through the Tsitsikamma toll into the Western Cape and back to civilisation. I feel so sad writing this - I was proudly Port Elizabethan but no longer!
NB. Kitchen Window in JBay is one of the best restaurants I have been to. The standard is consistently high, the food fresh and well prepared and the service excellent! Go there…unsurprisingly you need to book!
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