The Eastern Cape travel guide
An amalgamation of the eastern part of the former Cape Province and the apartheid-era homelands of the Transkei and Ciskei, the Eastern Cape is a large and ecologically diverse province whose habitats range from subtropical beaches to the arid scrub of the Karoo Nature Reserve and breezy montane grassland near the Lesotho border. The main population centre of the Xhosa people, the province has produced several prominent anti-apartheid leaders, including the former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela. In 1820, Algoa Bay, the site of present-day Port Elizabeth, became the first main focal point for English settlement in the Cape, an influence that still permeates nearby towns such as Grahamstown and Port Alfred.
Places to visit on the Eastern Cape
Shamwari and Kwandwe Game Reserves
Tel: 041-407 1000
Several exclusive private reserves around Addo offer a similar all-inclusive “Big Five” game-viewing package to their counterparts bordering the Kruger National Park, albeit generally in hillier terrain that supports a cover of dense woodland comprising various acacia species and the localised spekboom (literally “Bacon Tree”), a succulent whose plump leaves reputedly taste like bacon.
The best-known of these is the 200-sq-km (78-sq-mile) Shamwari Game Reserve, 72km (45 miles) northeast of Port Elizabeth. More than 26 species of game have been reintroduced here, including elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, buffalo, giraffe and zebra, and accommodation is spread across seven small exclusive lodges whose architecture reflects the colonial influence one might expect of an area so strongly associated with an influx of British settlers in the early 19th century.
Further inland, on the R67 about 160km (100 miles) from Port Elizabeth, the newer and equally sumptuous Kwandwe Game Reserve (tel: 046-603 3400; www.kwandwe.com), part of the ultra-exclusive &Beyond chain of five-star wilderness lodges, has a more overt “bush” feel to its four exclusive lodges, and it extends over 220 sq km (85 sq miles) of relatively arid terrain that offers superb game viewing, protecting a similar range of species to Shamwari.
Mountain Zebra National Park
The region’s main attraction, the Mountain Zebra National Park, lies 15km (9 miles) west of town. Some 6,600 hectares (16,300 acres) in size, the park was established in 1937 to protect the Cape mountain zebra – it was feared that it might go the way of its half-horse, half-zebra cousin the quagga, which became extinct when the last individual died in a zoo in 1883.
Through a careful programme of conservation and breeding, the park now accommodates about 300 mountain zebras, and smaller herds have been transferred to other parks in the province. It is also home to the endemic black wildebeest and blesbok, as well as springbok, kudu, cheetah, caracal, silver fox and recently introduced herds of buffalo and black rhino. A checklist of 200 bird species includes endemics such as orange-breasted rockjumper, Layard’s titbabbler and ground woodpecker, while the majestic black eagle can sometimes be seen soaring in the sky above. Finally, don’t be too surprised if you do happen to see something resembling a quagga here – in 1987, DNA studies on museum specimens determined that the quagga had been a race of plains zebra, and a project is currently underway to recreate it through selective breeding of an introduced herd of individuals with unstriped hindquarters.
Accommodation here includes the Victorian Doornhoek Guest House, built in 1836 and today a national monument, and a well equipped campsite. There are also hiking trails and mountain huts for keen walkers.
Graaff-Reinet
Continue another 120km (75 miles) west of Cradock, and you’ll reach Graaff-Reinet, the gem of the Karoo, enclosed by a bend in the Sundays River. Founded in 1786 (making it the fourth-oldest town in the country), it soon became a hub of political turbulence. In 1795, fed up with colonial rule and inspired by the example of the French Revolution, the inhabitants chased the government representative from town and declared an independent – albeit short-lived – republic. Despite all this, Graaff-Reinet looks today like the very model of good order, and differs markedly from the many other provincial towns which clearly grew up without any overall plan.
With the possible exception of Stellenbosch, no other town in South Africa has retained Graaff-Reinet’s pervasive Cape Dutch architectural character. More than 200 of its buildings have been declared national monuments, including an entire street – Stretch’s Court – now restored to its original 18th-century splendour. The splendid Dutch Reformed Church, reputedly modelled on Salisbury Cathedral in England, and the old parsonage – built in 1811 and once occupied by one of the country’s most noted churchmen, Dr Andrew Murray – have both been converted into museums. In the gardens of the parsonage, now called Reinet House, grows the largest living grapevine in the world. With a girth of 2.4 metres (8ft) and a height of 1.5 metres (5ft), it covers an area of 124 sq metres (1,335 sq ft) – and still bears fruit. The Drostdy in Church Street, completed in 1806, originally served as the seat of the local magistrate, but at the end of the 19th century it was converted into a hotel. You can no longer spend the night in the Drostdy itself, but you can stay in one of the cottages behind it.
Palaeontologists consider the Karoo basin and its unbroken fossil record one of the world’s great natural wonders. An extensive private collection of fossils – some exposed after an entombment of up to 230 million years – can be seen in the Old Library, situated on the corner of Church and Somerset streets. Just outside town is a statue of Andries Pretorius, the Voortrekker leader who lived in Graaff-Reinet before joining the Great Trek and leading his people to victory against the Zulus in the Battle of Blood River.
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