South Africa Travel Guide
Information
So, what is it really like?
A visit to South Africa lingers in the mind long after the visitor has departed its golden shores. There is so much to see and experience that a brief visit will never be enough. The scenery is breathtaking, the people hospitable; the towns and cities are very modern but it is easy to find solitude in the vast interior. The weather is benevolent, even in the mountains in mid winter a hard frost will soon be burned off by the sun. The coastline has long sandy beaches or craggy wild cliffs. The food and wine are sublime and the price for everything is very reasonable.
Big Game
The wildlife is amazing.
Rounding a bend in Kwa Zulu Natal to see a troop of Baboons feeding from an upturned bin is a delight until you catch the baleful glare of the troop leader. This is when you discover the true, wild nature, of a Baboon.
Vervet monkeys hopping through the trees and bushes along the clifftops outside Durban; look out to sea and there are dolphins playing in the surf.
Five minutes into a drive around the Hluhluwe Game Reserve and a herd of elephant' trundles into sight. Or the tantalising glimpse of a white rhino and her calf as they disappear from view through the grass.
In St Lucia National Park there are crocodiles and hippos basking on mudbanks whilst egrets peck a living amongst them. Trying to track zebra through dense woodland in St Lucia and finding leopard footprints in the sand, who was tracking whom? OK I could go on but I'm getting too excited and I haven't even mentioned Kruger National Park.
The other Big Game
South Africa is a country obsessed by sport. The big game is rugby. Once seen as the bastion of white rule this idea was blown away when Mandela appeared at the rugby world cup final, cheering the home side to victory, in his 'Springbok' jersey. The giant stadiums at Newlands and Ellis Park are temples to the fifteen a side game and they are always packed to the rafters by the devoted whenever a touring side comes to play.
The other great team game, which has been for years associated with South Africa, is cricket. Over the years they have produced many truly world class players. Cricket enjoys fervent support in the summer months throughout the country.
Ernie Els and Gary Player are only two of the many South African golfers to have graced the greens and fairways of the world's finest courses over the years. There are courses all over the country, most of them of a very high quality.
OK so far all I have listed have been sports where whites have traditionally excelled but with new government came an impetus towards greater integration and a commitment to provide sport for all. This message is slowly getting through and black sportsmen are emerging. However, the two areas where the black populace has concentrated their efforts have been in football (soccer) and track and field sports. The fanatical passion and following for football is huge and South Africa seems to be on it's way to producing a team that can compete at the highest levels. Johannesburg boasts a stadium that dwarfs the nations rugby arenas, Soccer City can hold 130,000 people.
Politics and History
This aspect of South African life has been well documented and the enmities whose roots lie deep in the countries past are not forgotten. Apartheid, the Boer War(s), the Zulu Wars and the Great Trek and the war of attrition that was waged on the black population by the colonial powers all invoke deep feelings on all sides.
Followers of the 'Out of Africa' theory of human evolution believe that South Africa was one of the first places to be colonised by modern 'Homo' species following their departure from east Africa. A number of tribes came eventually to occupy the Southern tip of Africa, the Bantu, San and Khokhoi amongst them.
The white man first arrived in 1488 when Bartholomieau Dias sailed round the Cape to Mossel Bay. However the first significant settlement came in 1652 with Jan van Riebeck of the Dutch East India Company.
The British were uncharacteristically slow on the uptake and it was not until 1795 that the first settlers from Britain arrived, others followed them in 1806. When they first reached South Africa they found a thriving colony of mainly Dutch, but also French Huguenot, settlers.
As time passed, the Dutch settlers grew tired of the British regime and they famously drove north in the 'Great Trek'. This caused the formation of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, these independent Boer republics were set up in the 1850's and the seeds for the Boer war were sown.
The true wealth of the country came to be realised with the discovery of the gold and diamond fields in the second half of the 19th century. Even now, mineral resources form the bedrock of the South African economy.
Black militancy against the white rulers of the country had been simmering for years this finally began to articulate itself with the formation of the ANC in 1927.
Successive governments passed increasingly draconian laws to restrict the power of the black populace, this reached its height with the election of Dr Malan in 1948. He came to power at the head of the National Party on an apartheid manifesto.
Although it is the Dutch Afrikaners who are generally blamed for the advent of Apartheid the admittedly more liberal British South Africans were also not without blame. They initiated many of the laws that the more politically committed Afrikaners simply tightened or modified to suit their purpose.
After years in the international wilderness and amidst increasing civil unrest at home, it was with the election of FW de Klerk in 1989 that the old repressive laws began to be dismantled. Mandela was released after years in prison and the rest, as they say, is history.
For the first time since Diaz set eyes upon the Cape, South Africa is a truly democratic country.
The problems that this country faces are massive but at least they are facing them as a wholly free nation.
Scenery and Landscape
Or, as many prefer to call it, Geography.
The coastal strips, east and west, are affected by their respective currents. To the east flows the warm Mozambique current whilst on the west flows the cooler Benguela current.
One of the best ways of enjoying the East Coast is to drive the 'Garden Route'. Don't miss Plattenburg Bay and Storms River. Breathtaking both.
Going inland, the central plateau is surrounded by mountains. Most spectacular of these are the peaks of the Drakensburg range. These craggy heights are stunning at any time of the year.
Much of the central plateau is dry and inhospitable, officially it is classed as semi arid which is a polite way of saying 'almost a desert'.
The veldt is the traditional view of South African scenery, the miles and miles of grass with herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across them are, for many, quintessential Africa. The countries biggest and most famous park the Kruger is to be found here in the north east corner of the country.
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