Settled by the British, Port Elizabeth—known as ‘the windy city,’ ‘the friendly city,’ and ‘PE’ for short—is a much more attractive, well-kept city than East London or Durban.  We are told that many South Africans from the Johannesburg area have summer homes in or near Port Elizabeth and many then retire to this area (which fits with our tour guide in East London.) 

The backbone of the ‘PE’ economy is car production, and in the port area were hundreds, possibly thousands, of cars awaiting export.

Despite our predilection toward ‘PE,’ our tours were unsatisfying.  “A history of mohair in South Africa’ took us to Mohair South Africa, a non-profit representing workers and mohair industry workers.  Mohair is made from the fleece of angora goats who came to the region when a Turkish sultan made a present of several neutered males and one female, not realizing the female was pregnant.  The goats thrived in the environment and an industry was born.  South Africa produces 50% of the world’s mohair and processes about 80%–meaning other mohair producers send raw wool to South Africa for processing.  The organization we visited is active in assisting black farmers to enter the angora goat/mohair industry as well as working on the processing side.  Nonetheless, we didn’t really learn a lot we hadn’t learned in shipboard talks and they didn’t really have much of a retail presence. 

The included bus tour was lackluster as well; we went by early buildings, the university and adjacent preserve (where animals showed prudence in not appearing with all the busloads of tourists and students milling around), and the soccer stadium constructed for the 2010 World Cup.

However, it was another beautiful day and felt much warmer than the actual high 60s temperatures.  We missed lunch due to lack of time between tours so indulged in afternoon tea—a wonderful presentation of teas, tea sandwiches, small sweets, and wonderful scones—which we normally avoid since we really don’t need 5 meals a day.