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The Eastern Cape is a popular holiday destination, able to boast beautiful beaches, excellent surfing, spectacular scenery,
malaria-free game parks featuring the Big Five, and a range of outdoor activities.
The friendly city of Port Elizabeth is the ideal base in the Eastern Cape, and its long summer days are as famous as its hospitality. Its neat, tree-lined suburbs house the country’s fifth largest urban population. A major seaport overlooking the waters of Algoa Bay, this year-round watersports paradise with 40km of magnificent coastline boasts a perfect combination of warm water and protected beaches. Attractions include the
Donkin Reserve, the Oceanarium, Snake Park and Museum complex.
Tsitsikamma, bordering on the Garden Route, is an area of splendid natural forests. Its name is derived from the Khoi-Khoi expression for ‘a place of abundant water.’ The name is entirely appropriate for this area of rocky shores, ravines, sheer cliffs, ancient trees and dense undergrowth.
East along the coastline, into the heart of the glorious Sunshine Coast, the road takes you past the resort towns of
St Francis Bay and Port Alfred, and the surfer’s paradise of Jeffreys Bay. The latter is well known for its large, shelly beaches and surfing conditions are amongst the best in the world.
Inland towards the Karoo is Graaff-Reinet, a living museum of Karoo lifestyle and architecture, a place of the old life in the heart of the country. Nearby is the awe-inspiring
Valley of Desolation, a geological wonder and national monument. Precariously balanced dolerite columns frame the town’s horizon, and is a part of the magnificent Karoo landscape.
The town of Grahamstown, with its 1820 settler architecture, museums and monuments, is known as the ‘City of Saints’ and also the ‘City of Learning,’ because of its many fine educational institutions. Every July the Grahamstown National Arts Festival takes place, a world-renowned meeting of the arts in the scenic heart of the final frontier of settler country.
Only 50 kilometres north-east of Port Elizabeth, is Addo Elephant National Park, home to over
300 prime elephants. Apart from elephants visitors can also view black rhino, buffalo, kudu, bushbuck, eland, hartebeest and a host of birdlife. Activities include viewing elephants from horseback, tracking rhino on foot, day and night walking trails, and driving a 4x4 route.
Besides Addo, there are a host of private malaria-free game reserves in the Eastern Cape to choose from. Two to three nights at a private game lodge makes for
a luxurious, relaxing end to a Garden Route Tour, before flying out of Port Elizabeth and returning home.
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