Settler Country
East of Port Elizabeth, Kenton-on-Sea and Port Alfred are pretty little holiday towns, the latter on the mouth of the Kowie River – canoeing trips can be undertaken from Port Alfred to Bathurst, home of The Pig and Whistle, the oldest pub in South Africa (1831).
A short distance inland, Victorian Grahamstown is home to one of South Africa’s best universities and hosts a giant annual arts festival each July. The town has many fine buildings, amongst which the most interesting are the Cathedral of St Michael and St George, situated in the triangular Church Square, the 1820 Settlers Monument (after the first British to settle the area), Fort Selwyn, and rows of shops and houses on Church Square, Artificers’ Square, Hill Street and MacDonald Street. The town also has several excellent museums, including the Albany Museum, History Museum, Natural Sciences Museum and the International Library of African Music. Local development projects offer traditional Xhosa meals.
Fort Hare University, in the nearby town of Alice, was the country’s first black university, founded in 1916. King William’s Town is not only a fine Victorian town, with many beautiful houses and the excellent Kaffrarian Museum, but is the birth and burial place of nationalist leader, Steve Biko.
An hour’s drive from Grahamstown is the village of Hogsback, situated in the striking Amatola Mountains. It is an ideal place to walk in the forest of yellowwood, stinkwood and Cape chestnut trees along trails to magical waterfalls – the most spectacular being the aptly-named Bridal Veil and Madonna and Child.
EAST LONDON AND THE WILD COAST: East London, built on the mouth of the Buffalo River, is not only South Africa’s fourth largest port, but a popular seaside resort with a subtropical climate, fine beaches and some of the best surfing in South Africa. There is excellent swimming at Eastern Beach, Nahoon Beach and Orient Beach. The city is not particularly pretty, but it does have some interesting museums and monuments, notably, the East London Museum (with the world’s only Dodo egg and a stuffed coelacanth); the Gately House Museum, built in 1878; the Anne Bryant Art Gallery, with an interesting collection of contemporary South African art; an excellent Aquarium; fine Botanical Gardens; 19th-century Fort Glamorgan; and the Hood Point Lighthouse. Latimer’s Landing has a wide range of good shops and restaurants.
Heading west, the Wild Coast’s history (as a black ‘homeland’) and lack of roads have left it gloriously undeveloped. This is a spectacularly beautiful area of wild cliffs and hidden coves, many parts of it inaccessible to normal vehicles. The main road runs inland through the Eastern Cape’s uninspiring capital, Umtata, with occasional dirt roads winding down to the water’s edge. Nelson Mandela was born in and has retired to Qunu, 34km (20 miles) west of Umtata on the East London road.
The main tourist town in the area is Port St Johns, the closest thing South Africa has to a hippy hangout. Both here and at various coves and rivermouths along the coast are small, hideaway lodges perfect for those who want to relax or fish, away from the crowds. Just before the Kwazulu-Natal Border, the Wild Coast Sun, with its casino and waterpark, is an abrupt introduction to the more developed coast near Durban.
To the north is the southern end of the Drakensberg Mountains. South Africa’s only ski resort, Tiffendel, is near the small village of Rhodes, where trout fishing, hiking and pony-trekking are all possible.
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