Walvis Bay in Namibia

17 September 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Oyster farming © Olga Ernst/cc-by-sa-4.0

Oyster farming © Olga Ernst/cc-by-sa-4.0

Walvis Bay is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers a total area of 29 square kilometres (11 sq mi) of land.   read more…

Garden Route in South Africa

22 December 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  4 minutes

Eastern Cape © flickr.com - South African Tourism/cc-by-2.0

Eastern Cape © flickr.com – South African Tourism/cc-by-2.0

The Garden Route is a 300-kilometre (190 mi) stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa which extends from Witsand in the Western Cape to the border of Tsitsikamma Storms River in the Eastern Cape. The name comes from the verdant and ecologically diverse vegetation encountered here and the numerous estuaries and lakes dotted along the coast. It includes towns such as Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay, Great Brak River, Little Brak River, Wilderness, Sedgefield and Nature’s Valley; with George, the Garden Route’s largest city and main administrative centre. Recently the towns of Albertinia, Riversdale, Heidelberg, Ladismith, Calitzdorp, Oudtshoorn, De Rust and Uniondale have been added to the Garden Route district and municipality.   read more…

Island of Gorée

5 August 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  15 minutes

© Inextre/cc-by-sa-3.0-es

© Inextre/cc-by-sa-3.0-es

Île de Gorée is one of the 19 communes d’arrondissement (i.e. districts) of the city of Dakar, Senegal. It is an 18.2-hectare (45-acre) island located 2 kilometres (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) at sea from the main harbour of Dakar, famous as a destination for people interested in the Atlantic slave trade although its actual role in the history of the slave trade is the subject of dispute. Its population as of the 2013 census was 1,680 inhabitants, giving a density of 5,802 inhabitants per square kilometre (15,030/sq mi), which is only half the average density of the city of Dakar. Gorée is both the smallest and the least populated of the 19 communes d’arrondissement of Dakar. Other important centres for the slave trade from Senegal were further north, at Saint-Louis, Senegal, or to the south in the Gambia, at the mouths of major rivers for trade. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name is a corruption of its original Dutch name Goedereede, meaning “good roadstead“.   read more…

Lamu Island in Kenya

3 February 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  11 minutes

Lamu Town © flickr.com - Erik (HASH) Hersman/cc-by-2.0

Lamu Town © flickr.com – Erik (HASH) Hersman/cc-by-2.0

Lamu Island is a port, city, and island just off the shore of Kenya in the Indian Ocean approximately 150 miles from Mombasa. It is a part of the East African country of Kenya. Lamu was founded in the 12th Century. Lamu is one of the longest established, and best preserved remaining settlements of the Swahili tradition in east Africa that remains today. The island has continually been inhabited for over seven hundred years, and continues to be an important center in eastern Africa. In 2001, Lamu was designated a United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization or UNESCO site. Centuries ago the island of Lamu was highly dependent on the function of slavery in its economy, since abolishment of slavery the island has looked for other ways to bring wealth back into its economy. With the diverse cultural and colorful design of Lamu, it is a place of interest for tourists drawn to the East African Coast.   read more…

Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town

4 May 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Osvát András

© Osvát András

The Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront in Cape Town is situated on the Atlantic shore, Table Bay Harbour, the City of Cape Town and Table Mountain. Adrian van der Vyver designed the complex. The Waterfront attracts more than 23 million visitors a year. Situated in South Africa’s oldest working harbour, the 123 hectares (300 acres) area has been developed for mixed-use, with both residential and commercial real estate. Features in the waterfront are Chavonnes Battery, Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island, Nobel Square (with sculptures of the four South African Nobel Peace Prize winners Albert John Lutuli, Desmond Tutu, Frederik Willem de Klerk, and Nelson Mandela), Two Oceans Aquarium, Breakwater Lodge (University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business).   read more…

Theme Week South Africa – Johannesburg

24 June 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  21 minutes

Nelson Mandela Square © NJR ZA/cc-by-sa-3.0

Nelson Mandela Square © NJR ZA/cc-by-sa-3.0

Johannesburg, also known as Jozi, Joburg and eGoli, is the largest city in South Africa and is one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. It is the provincial capital of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. While Johannesburg is not one of South Africa’s three capital cities, it is the seat of the Constitutional Court. The city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm. The city is commonly interpreted as the modern day El Dorado due to the extremely large gold deposit found along the Witwatersrand. The name is attributed to one or all of three men involved in the establishment of the city. In ten years, the population was 100,000 inhabitants.   read more…

Theme Week South Africa – Pretoria

23 June 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Union Buildings, seat of the South African government, with statue of Louis Botha © Robbie Aspeling/cc-by-sa-3.0

Union Buildings, seat of the South African government, with statue of Louis Botha © Robbie Aspeling/cc-by-sa-3.0

Pretoria is a city in the northern part of Gauteng Province. It is one of the country’s three capital cities, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government (Cape Town is the legislative capital and Bloemfontein the judicial capital). Pretoria has a reputation for being an academic city with three universities and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) located in its eastern suburbs, the city also hosts the South African Bureau of Standards making the city a hub for research. Pretoria is the central part of the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality which was formed by the amalgamation of several former local authorities including Centurion and Soshanguve. There have been proposals to change the name of Pretoria itself to Tshwane, and the proposed name change has caused some controversy. Pretoria is situated approximately 55 km (34 mi) north-northeast of Johannesburg in the northeast of South Africa, in a transitional belt between the plateau of the Highveld to the south and the lower-lying Bushveld to the north. It lies at an altitude of about 1,339 m (4,393 ft) above sea level, in a warm, sheltered, fertile valley, surrounded by the hills of the Magaliesberg range.   read more…

Theme Week South Africa – Bloemfontein

22 June 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Old Presidency © Janek Szymanowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

Old Presidency © Janek Szymanowski/cc-by-sa-3.0

Bloemfontein (Afrikaans and Dutch previously “fountain of flowers” or “blooming fountain;” also known as Bloem) is the capital city of the province of Free State of South Africa; and, as the judicial capital of the nation, one of South Africa’s three national capitals (the other two being Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Pretoria, the administrative capital). Bloemfontein is the sixth largest city in South Africa. Bloemfontein was popularly and poetically known as “the city of roses”, owing to the abundance of these flowers and the annual rose festival held there. The city’s Sesotho name is Mangaung, meaning “place of cheetahs“. Bloemfontein has since 2011 formed part of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, having previously been part of the Mangaung Local Municipality.   read more…

Theme Week South Africa – Upington

21 June 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Upington Central Business District © Rick Walker/cc-by-sa-3.0

Upington Central Business District © Rick Walker/cc-by-sa-3.0

Upington is a town founded in 1884 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olyfenhoudtsdrif (‘Olive wood drift’), due to the abundance of olive wood trees in the area, but later renamed after Sir Thomas Upington, Attorney-General and then Prime Minister of the Cape. It originated as a mission station established in 1875 and run by Reverend Christiaan Schröder. The mission station now houses the town museum, known as the Kalahari Orange Museum. The museum is also the home of a donkey statue, which recognises the enormous contribution that this animal made to the development of the region during the pioneering days of the 19th century.   read more…

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