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• Walk around Cape Town's main hub, the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a beautifully restored old Victorian harbour which offers free entertainment, and a wide variety of shops, museums (including the excellent aquarium), taverns and restaurants (website: www.waterfront.co.za).
• Explore the relics of colonial government, centred on Cape Town's Government Avenue, with fine old buildings and museums, including: the Parliament Buildings; Groote Kerk (mother church of the Dutch Reformed faith); the National Museum; the National Gallery; Bertram House; and centuries-old Company's Garden.
• See the largest colony of jackass penguins to live on the African mainland at Boulders Beach in Simonstown. The penguins live on a protected beach strewn with boulders and visitors can watch them from a boardwalk (website: www.sanparks.org).
• Enjoy South Africa's almost 24,000 species of flowers, many of which can be seen in the world-class and extraordinarily beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, created by Cecil Rhodes in 1895 on the lower slopes of Table Mountain (website: www.sanbi.org).
• Venture into Addo Elephant National Park to track down herds of easily-seen elephant and other game, including black rhino, buffalo and antelope. Excellent private reserves nearby include Shamwari, which has upmarket accommodation plus elephants, lions, leopards, rhino and buffalo (websites: www.addoelephantpark.co.za; www.shamwari.com).
• See the only place in the world where hippos, crocodiles and sharks share the same lagoon at Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, which is bordered by giant dunes, beaches and tropical reefs. It also has superb birdwatching and diving (website: www.stlucia.org.za).
• Visit the huge Hluhluwe-Umfolozi National Park, which ranges from rocky hillside to open savannah and thick woodland, and supports some 86 mammal and around 425 bird species. There are more rhinos here than anywhere else on earth (website: www.kznwildlife.com).
• Track down the ‘Big Five' animals and thousands of other species in world-famous Kruger National Park, a massive reserve ranking among the best wildlife-watching destinations in Africa. Surrounding the park are private concessions that are less crowded but more expensive than park camps (website: www.sanparks.org).
• Go to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, a manmade reserve and an excellent ‘Big Five' destination. It is the third-largest game park in South Africa. Adjoining it is the over-the-top resort of Sun City (website: www.pilanesberggamereserve.com).
• Walk, climb or ride your way around the Drakensberg, South Africa's largest mountain range. It is a jagged backbone of saw-toothed peaks reaching 3,000m (9,840ft) with refreshing mountain streams, ancient yellow-wood trees and Bushmen cave art (website: www.drakensberg.kzn.org.za).
• Follow the Panorama Route at the top of the spectacularly scenic Blyde River Canyon just to the west of Kruger, where there is a series of waterfalls, dramatic mountains, plunging cliffs and spectacular views of the Lowveld 1,000m (3,300ft) below (website: www.mpumalanga.com).
• Learn about the series of wars between the Zulus, Afrikaans and British (1830-1902) by exploring their bloody frontline in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal, an area of rolling grassland and rocky kopjies (hills). Graves, memorials and monuments scatter the region (website: www.battlefields.kzn.org.za).
• Get diamond fever in Kimberley, where you'll find the Big Hole, the world's largest hand dug manmade excavation, and the Mine Museum, with its replicas of 19th-century Kimberley during the diamond rush. The De Beers Hall Museum also displays cut and uncut diamonds (website: www.kimberley.co.za).
• Learn the history of apartheid in Johannesburg's excellent new museums. The critically acclaimed Apartheid Museum tells the whole story, Soweto's Hector Pieterson Museum covers the 1976 student uprising and Constitutional Hill is on the site of a notorious jail where many blacks were sent (websites: www.apartheidmuseum.org, www.constitutionhill.org.za).
See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.
• Explore the relics of colonial government, centred on Cape Town's Government Avenue, with fine old buildings and museums, including: the Parliament Buildings; Groote Kerk (mother church of the Dutch Reformed faith); the National Museum; the National Gallery; Bertram House; and centuries-old Company's Garden.
• See the largest colony of jackass penguins to live on the African mainland at Boulders Beach in Simonstown. The penguins live on a protected beach strewn with boulders and visitors can watch them from a boardwalk (website: www.sanparks.org).
• Enjoy South Africa's almost 24,000 species of flowers, many of which can be seen in the world-class and extraordinarily beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, created by Cecil Rhodes in 1895 on the lower slopes of Table Mountain (website: www.sanbi.org).
• Venture into Addo Elephant National Park to track down herds of easily-seen elephant and other game, including black rhino, buffalo and antelope. Excellent private reserves nearby include Shamwari, which has upmarket accommodation plus elephants, lions, leopards, rhino and buffalo (websites: www.addoelephantpark.co.za; www.shamwari.com).
• See the only place in the world where hippos, crocodiles and sharks share the same lagoon at Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, which is bordered by giant dunes, beaches and tropical reefs. It also has superb birdwatching and diving (website: www.stlucia.org.za).
• Visit the huge Hluhluwe-Umfolozi National Park, which ranges from rocky hillside to open savannah and thick woodland, and supports some 86 mammal and around 425 bird species. There are more rhinos here than anywhere else on earth (website: www.kznwildlife.com).
• Track down the ‘Big Five' animals and thousands of other species in world-famous Kruger National Park, a massive reserve ranking among the best wildlife-watching destinations in Africa. Surrounding the park are private concessions that are less crowded but more expensive than park camps (website: www.sanparks.org).
• Go to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, a manmade reserve and an excellent ‘Big Five' destination. It is the third-largest game park in South Africa. Adjoining it is the over-the-top resort of Sun City (website: www.pilanesberggamereserve.com).
• Walk, climb or ride your way around the Drakensberg, South Africa's largest mountain range. It is a jagged backbone of saw-toothed peaks reaching 3,000m (9,840ft) with refreshing mountain streams, ancient yellow-wood trees and Bushmen cave art (website: www.drakensberg.kzn.org.za).
• Follow the Panorama Route at the top of the spectacularly scenic Blyde River Canyon just to the west of Kruger, where there is a series of waterfalls, dramatic mountains, plunging cliffs and spectacular views of the Lowveld 1,000m (3,300ft) below (website: www.mpumalanga.com).
• Learn about the series of wars between the Zulus, Afrikaans and British (1830-1902) by exploring their bloody frontline in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal, an area of rolling grassland and rocky kopjies (hills). Graves, memorials and monuments scatter the region (website: www.battlefields.kzn.org.za).
• Get diamond fever in Kimberley, where you'll find the Big Hole, the world's largest hand dug manmade excavation, and the Mine Museum, with its replicas of 19th-century Kimberley during the diamond rush. The De Beers Hall Museum also displays cut and uncut diamonds (website: www.kimberley.co.za).
• Learn the history of apartheid in Johannesburg's excellent new museums. The critically acclaimed Apartheid Museum tells the whole story, Soweto's Hector Pieterson Museum covers the 1976 student uprising and Constitutional Hill is on the site of a notorious jail where many blacks were sent (websites: www.apartheidmuseum.org, www.constitutionhill.org.za).
See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.
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