East London Eastern Cape South Africa

Home of the Coelacanth

MOLO, MOLWENI, the traditional welcoming exchange between people, when meeting, in the Xhosa language, the predominate language of the Eastern Cape, however, English is understood by all.

All parks and reserves in the Eastern Cape are malaria free.
The Eastern Cape of South Africa is blessed with a large diversity of wildlife due to the fact that it stretches from the semi - tropical coast to the semi-arid interior, a total of seven different biomes are found and some twelve national and private game reserves and game parks are situated in the area, encompassing nearly a million hectares. The government and private sectors are investing heavily in eco-tourism and a wide choice of game viewing opportunities exist for the visitor. The coastline is more than 820 kilometres in length and provides some spectacular diving in the warm Indian Ocean, including diving with the Great White shark and whale watching, both from on land or from sea.

The biggest and oldest park is the Addo National Elephant Park, this 360 000 hectare park situated just 70 kilometres from Port Elizabeth and 200 kilometres from East London , is home to some 450 elephants, lion, leopard, black rhino, cape buffalo, and a variety of antelope. It has over night accommodation, both cottages and camping sites and it is advised to book well in advance, booking can be done online by visiting the official web site below.

Mountain Zebra National Park. Is situated west of Cradock, in the shadow of the Bankberg mountain range. As it's name suggests it is home to 300 plus Cape mountain zebra the last remaining herd of these animals that were nearly driven to extinction, black rhino are a recent introduction to the park. Accommodation is avaliable and can be booked on the official web site below.

Camdeboo National Park.
This 14 500 hectare park surrounds the town of Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo, a semi-desert region of the Eastern Cape. Many variety of antelope are well adapted to the conditions and steenbok, springbok, blesbok and black wildebeest as well as Cape buffalo. Red hartebeest and gemsbok may be seen. There are plans to join this park with the Mountain Zebra National Park.

National Parks web sites.

Addo Elephant National Park http://www.sanparks.org/parks/addo/

Camdeboo National Park http://www.sanparks.org/parks/camdeboo/

Mountain Zebra National Park http://www.sanparks.org/parks/mountain_zebra/

All Animal Photos courtesy of - Wildlife Pictures Online - providing quality wildlife photos from Africa