The Big Pineapple in Bathurst, South Africa

Back in early April I traveled from my home in Cape Town, South Africa to the Eastern Cape, South Africa. I went for a long weekend to visit my husband in Grahamstown. My husband periodically spends several weeks in Grahamstown as he is working (part-time) on his masters degree in Exploration Geology at Rhodes University. I also visited the Eastern Cape back in December. I’m really enjoying exploring the Eastern Cape. I look forward to more visits there in the future and also to sharing some tidbits about my Eastern Cape travels with you here on Georneys. I’ll start by telling you about the giant pineapple. Yes, the giant pineapple.

Unfortunately, it poured down rain all weekend during my April visit to the Eastern Cape. However, my husband and I didn’t let the rain stop us from doing some sightseeing. On Saturday we drove from Grahamstown down to Port Alfred, and we stopped in the little agricultural town of Bathurst along the way.

BathurstMap — Map showing the drive from Grahamstown to Port Alfred via Bathurst.

As we were driving along through Bathurst, I was quite surprised to hear my husband say, “Oh, look. There’s the giant pineapple.”

I said, “The what?” and then nearly drove off the road (not really, but my attention was diverted for a moment) when this giant pineapple came into view:

Bathurst1 — The Big Pineapple in Bathurst. Viewed from the road.

Of course, we had to stop and take a look at what is known as “The Big Pineapple”. Located on a pineapple farm and experimental station, The Big Pineapple is a 16.7 m tall pineapple-shaped building that has three floors. The first floor is a gift shop where you can buy pineapples, various pineapple food items (dried pineapples, jellies, chutneys, etc.), and all sorts of pineapple-themed souvenirs (t-shirts, bags, tea towels, figurines, etc.– we bought a pineapple-decorated sugar bowl). The second floor is a museum with some general information about pineapples and the history of pineapple farming in South Africa. The third floor has a TV showing a movie about pineapples and an observation deck, where you can enjoy the view, which includes fields of growing pineapples. On clear days, you can apparently see the Indian Ocean in the distance. On the cloudy day we visited, however, we couldn’t see beyond the closest fields.

The Bathurst pineapple building is actually a copy of the original “Big Pineapple” in Queensland, Australia. The Queensland pineapple building stands only 16 m tall– the Bathurst pineapple building is a slightly enlarged replica of the Queensland pineapple building. The Bathurst pineapple building was made larger so that Bathurst could claim that they have “the world’s biggest pineapple”.

Here are some more pictures of The Big Pineapple in Bathurst:

Bathurst2 — A closer view of The Big Pineapple in Bathurst.

Bathurst3 — The Big Pineapple in Bathurst with a car for scale.

Bathurst6 — The Big Pineapple in Bathurst with yours truly and an umbrella for scale.

Bathurst4 — Bathurst hosted The International Pineapple Symposium back in 2005.

Bathurst5 — Experimental pineapple growing is carried out in Bathurst.

Bathurst7 — Informational sign on the second floor of The Big Pineapple in Bathurst.

Bathurst8 — A sign about the building of The Big Pineapple in Bathurst.

Bathurst9 — An old article about the history of pineapple growing in South Africa.

Bathurst10 — A map showing the main areas where pineapples are grown.

Bathurst11 — The view from the top of The Big Pineapple in Bathurst.

Bathurst12 — Another view from the top of The Big Pineapple in Bathurst.

During my visit to The Big Pineapple in Bathurst, I learned two things. First, I learned that pineapples don’t grow in trees. I guess I never really thought about it too much, but I always assumed that pineapples grew in big trees, similar to the way coconuts grow in palm trees. Nope. Pineapples grow on the ground like this:

Bathurst13 — Pineapples growing on the ground in Bathurst.

Bathurst14 — Another view of pineapples growing on the ground in Bathurst.

The second thing I learned as a result of my visit to The Big Pineapple in Bathurst is that pictures of a giant pineapple building really confuse Facebook’s facial recognition software:

Pineapple1 — Facebook thinks that every single hexagon on the The Big Pineapple is someone's face. Facebook wanted me to tag dozens of pineapple face friends!

My husband and I enjoyed our visit to the strange and wonderful Big Pineapple in Bathurst. We hope to visit again another time– hopefully on a day when it’s not pouring down rain. Next time we visit, I plan to bring a SpongeBob doll. Or perhaps a SpongeBob costume, if I can find one.

Monday Geology Picture: More Dassies (Rock Hyraxes)

396150_539437961778_1317305505_n — Dassies amongst some rocks. Picture courtesy of Joy.

Last week, I shared some pictures of some dassies or rock hyraxes along the Breede River. This week, I thought I would share another picture of dassies in the Cape Town, South Africa area, courtesy of my friend Joy.

Monday Geology Picture(s): Sandstone and Dassies along the Breede River, South Africa

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Uplifted sandstone rocks along the Breede River near Robertson, South Africa, February 2013.

This past weekend my husband and I traveled down to Robertson, South Africa to visit family. We’ve been wanting to do a river trip for awhile, so we booked a kayaking trip along the Breede River for Saturday. The Breede is a very beautiful river, and we saw some incredible birds– most of which flew away before we could take a good picture of them! We stopped for a snack and some swimming near the uplifted (nearly vertical!) sandstone rocks in the above picture. We were taking a look at the rocks when we noticed some movement amongst them.The rocks, as it turned out, were full of dassies or rock hyraxes. The dassies kept darting out from the rocks and hopping and waddling (they’re pretty fat!) down to the river for a drink on the hot summer day.

Here are a few pictures of the dassies:

Two Oceans Aquarium, Cape Town in Pictures

Today my husband and I visited the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa. I highly recommend a visit to the aquarium for anyone in the area. Below is a gallery of a few pictures from our visit. Enjoy! Click on any of the pictures below for a larger version.

LASI V: Biological Interlude #3

More geology posts about the LASI V workshop are coming, but meanwhile here’s another biological interlude. One day during the Karoo field trip, we spotted a dung beetle. Dung beetles are pretty neat little critters, actually. And they can move balls of dung remarkably quickly!

Beetle1 — A dung beetle in South Africa's Karoo region, November 2012.

Beetle3 — Another view of the dung beetle and its dung ball, November 2012.

LASI V: Biological Interlude #2

I’m still busy writing up some more exciting geology posts related to the LASI V workshop, but meanwhile here’s another biological interlude.

You may remember that back in October I wrote about an interesting monkey warning sign at Pine Lodge, the venue for the LASI V talks.

A day later, I walked out of my room to go over to breakfast and– sure enough– encountered a vervet monkey.

LASI V: Biological Interlude #1

So, I’ve been meaning to put up another LASI V post or two, but I’ve been extremely busy with my day job over the past few weeks. I hope to have another substantive LASI V post up soon, but in the meantime here’s a lovely biological interlude post that contains pictures of some vegetation which I observed during the LASI V field trip to South Africa’s Karoo. As I geologist, I generally dislike vegetation since it covers up all the pretty rocks. Sometimes, though, vegetation is pretty enough that I don’t mind it too much. If any botanists read this post and know about the vegetation in the pictures, please enlighten us geologists!

Observed on Day #1 of the LASI V Field Trip:

Vegetation3 — A lovely cactus of some sort.

Vegetation1 — Pretty pink biology thingies.

Vegetation2 — A closer view of one of the pretty pink biology thingies.

Observed on Day #2 of the LASI V Field Trip:

Vegetation4 — Another cactus... with some sills in the background!

Vegetation5 — Very interesting vegetation growing on a rock.

Vegetation6 — A closer view of the rock-covering vegetation, with a 2 Rand coin for scale (about the size of an American nickel).

Observed on Day #3 of the LASI V Field Trip:

Vegetation7 — Trees and some grass on a farm in the Karoo.

Vegetation8 — A closer view of the grass.

Vegetation10 — Yellow flowers... and some rocks in the background.

Vegetation11 — A spiky cactus. Don't want to step on this one!

Vegetation12 — The view from the top of a place called "Witkop 3". I'll be writing all about Witkop 3, so stay tuned!

Vegetation13 — A zoom-in of the view down in the valley below Witkop 3. Flowers and sheep!

Vegetation16 — More little yellow flowers.

LASI V: Beware the Vervet Monkeys

Port Elizabeth-20121028-01330 — A warning sign on the fridge in my hotel room here at Pine Lodge.

This afternoon I arrived at Pine Lodge, the venue for the LASI V workshop. The facilities are very nice here (I’m currently sitting next to the pool and hot tub and catching up on some blogging and other work), but you do need to be careful to close the doors and windows of your room when you leave because there are thieves around… monkey thieves! Specifically, adorable but mischievous vervet monkeys.

I have yet to catch sight of a vervet monkey here in Port Elizabeth, but I’m sure that I’ll see some before I leave. My husband and I saw plenty of vervet monkeys last week when we were on holiday at South Africa’s “South Coast” and “Wild Coast”. Below are a few pictures of vervet monkeys from our holiday last week.

VervetMoney1 — Vervet monkey sitting in a tree. South Coast, South Africa, October 2012.

VervetMonkey2 — Mother and baby vervet monkey. South Coast, South Africa, October 2012.

VervetMonkey3 — Another view of the mother and baby vervet monkey. South Coast, South Africa, October 2012.

VervetMonkey4 — Photobomb! South Coast, South Africa, October 2012.

VervetMonkey5 — Just hanging around. South Coast, South Africa, October 2012.

VervetMonkey6 — Up in a tree. South Coast, South Africa, October 2012.

Muskoxen Near Nome, Alaska

Here’s a little biological interlude: pictures of some muskoxen which I encountered on the arctic tundra just outside of Nome, where I’m currently working.

Muskox1 — A small herd of muskoxen near Nome, Alaska, August 2012.

Muskox2 — A (slightly) closer view of some muskoxen near Nome, Alaska, August 2012.

There is some tension between the muskoxen and the citizens of Nome. Muskoxen can be aggressive towards dogs and small children, and they often wander into people’s backyards. Here’s a recent example of some of the tension between muskoxen, people, and dogs. Personally, I like observing the muskoxen… but from a safe distance.

Whale Carcass on the Beach in Nome, Alaska

Here’s a bit of a biological interlude. I’m currently spending about two months in Nome, Alaska working for a marine gold exploration company as I explained before. I’m really loving my job so far, but I can’t share pictures or information related to my work. However, I can share some pictures from the town and surrounds. Currently, there is a giant whale carcass on one of the beaches here in Nome. I find the dead whale disgustingly beautiful, if that makes sense. I imagine the carcass will continue to decompose. Perhaps I’ll take pictures of the carcass again in a few weeks. Can anyone identify the whale species?