Eastern Cape Provincial Article - South African Vacations

The Cacadu Region also encompasses the stark beauty of the Karoo, the vast
central plateau of South Africa. Here, in the land where dinosaurs used to
roam, the visitor is exposed to sweeping skies, spacious horizons and a very
special kind of brooding stillness and silence. Some of the main attractions of
this area, apart from the mouth-watering cuisine and friendly hospitality of its
people, include the Valley of Desolation, a ravine of giant dolerite pillars near
Graaff-Reinet; the Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock; excellent
collections of fossils, rock art and Anglo-Boer War memorabilia as well as the
Great Fish River Reserve, situated in the heart of “frontier” country.
PORT ELIZABETH
Port Elizabeth, the largest city in the Eastern Cape, is set on the beautiful
coastline of Algoa Bay. Algoa Bay, discovered by the Portuguese in 1482, was
for a long time the last port of call for ships sailing to India. When the British
captured the Cape in 1795 a stone fort (Fort Frederick) was built on the hill
overlooking the Algoa Bay anchorage and a thriving settlement soon grew
here. In 1820, after the arrival of over 4 000 British Settlers, a town was
officially established and named Port Elizabeth after the late wife of the acting
Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Rufane Donkin.
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