The Rough Guide to South Africa (Rough Guides)

739 Pages·2010·21.44 MB·English

by  Barbara McCrea

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THE ROUGH GUIDE to
South Africa
SOUTH AFRICA
M
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BOTSWANA 10 A
Polokwane M
B
N11 IQ
U
Nelspruit E
NAMIBIA N4 7 9
Mafikeng Johannesburg MBABANE
8 N2
N3 SWAZILAND
6
Orange Kimberley
River 5
N14 N8 MASERU
Bloemfontein
LESOTHO
N7 3 N10 N1 4 Durban
N12 N6
ATLANTIC N2 INDIAN
OCEAN N7 4 OCEAN
N1 N9
CAPE 2 East London
TOWN
N2
1 Port Elizabeth 0 200 km
Mossel Bay
1Cape Town 4 Eastern Cape 7 Gauteng 10Limpopo
2Western Cape 5 KwaZulu-Natal 8 North West Province
3Northern Cape 6 Free State 9 Mpumalanga
About this book
Rough Guides are designed to be good to read and easy to use. The book is
divided into the following sections and you should be able to find whatever you
need in one of them.
The introductory colour section is designed to give you a feel for South
Africa, suggesting when to go and what not to miss, and includes a full list
of contents. Then comes basics, for pre-departure information and other
practicalities.
The guide chapters cover the country in depth, each starting with a highlights
panel, introduction and a map to help you plan your route.
The contexts section fills you in on history, wildlife, music and books, while
individual colour sections introduce the great outdoors and architecture, and
language gives background on Afrikaans and indigenous tongues, and includes
a menu reader.
The book concludes with all the small print, including details of how to send in
updates and corrections, and a comprehensive index.
This sixth edition published January 2010
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all the
information in The Rough Guide to South Africa, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss,
injury, or inconvenience sustained by any traveller as a result of information or advice contained in
the guide.
The Rough Guide to
South Africa
written and researched by
Tony Pinchuck, Barbara McCrea,
Donald Reid and Ross Velton
www.roughguides.com
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Contents
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Colour section 1 7 Gauteng ............................501 |
8 North West Province .........561
9 Mpumalanga .....................581
Introduction ...............................6
G Limpopo ............................627
Where to go ...............................8
When to go ..............................11
Contexts 647
Things not to miss ...................13
Wildlife .....................................21
History ..................................649

Wildlife ...................................665
Basics 33
Music .....................................678
Books ....................................691
Getting there ............................35
Getting around ........................39
Language 697
Accommodation.......................47
Eating and drinking ..................51
English ...................................699
The media ................................55
Afrikaans ................................700
Festivals...................................57
The Nguni group ....................701
Activities and outdoor
The Sotho group ....................701
pursuits .................................59
Pronouncing place names .....701
Spectator sports ......................61
Glossary.................................705
Parks, reserves and wilderness
Food and drink ......................707
areas .....................................63

Health ......................................69
Small print & Index 711
Crime and personal safety ......73
Travel essentials ......................75

Guide 83 The great outdoors
colour section
following p.320
1 Cape Town and the Cape
Peninsula ............................85
2 The Western Cape ............169
3 The Northern Cape ...........285 The great indoors w
4 The Eastern Cape .............329 colour section ww
5 KwaZulu-Natal ..................397 following p.544 .ro
6 Free State .........................485 ug
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(cid:2)(cid:2) Zebras in Pilanesberg National Park (cid:2) Giant aloe trees, Richtersveld National Park
WINDHOEK
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W
H
ER N
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T KGALAGADI
O TRANSFRONTIER
G PARK
O WHE| Nossob River Molopo River NOPRROTHV IWNCEEST
N

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O Askam

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O
Kuruman
Karasburg Kalahari
RICHTERSVELD
TRANSFRONTIER
PARK Upington
Orange River Kakamas
Port
Nolloth Pofadder Orange River MOKAKLimAberley
N P
Springbok Namaqualand Hopetown
Prieska
NORTHERN CAPE
Bristown De Aar
Carnarvon
Calvinia
Williston Victoria
West
Vanrhynsdorp
ATLANTIC Great Karoo
OCEAN TNAANTKIOWNAA-LK PAARROKO NKATAIROONOAL CAMDEBOO
Sutherland PARK N P
w Beaufort Graaff-
w Vredenburg West Reinet
w.roughguid WNEASPTTSAI OaCRlNOdKCAaAAnLSPh TMaE A aTtllmOaSneWttsiesbNlluernyPbTaohasecr lWhineFlarandnssWchohrcoeesktReorbertsonSwellenLdiatWtmlEe SKTaErRGoeoNor gCeAOPudEtshoKonrnysGnRaAORUDTWEENill oTwSNImTASPoTArIIKeORANKMAML A
e Mossel
s Bay WILDERNESS Plettenberg
.c Hermanus NATIONAL Bay
o Arniston DE HOOP PARK
m NATURE
Cape RESERVE
4 Agulhas
SOUTH AFRICA
MAPUNGUBWE ZIMBABWE
Limpopo River NP MusinaThohoyTasnhdipoiuse Limpopo INTR|
LIMPOPO Makhado KRUGER O
NATIONAL D
Lephalale PARK M UC
GABORONE Marico River ModimolleMokopa(PnPieeotleorkswbuarnge) Tzaneen Phalaborwa OZAMBIQU TION WHE|
E R
NAPTILIOANNAELS BPEARRGK Sun City Lydenburg E
MPUMALANGA Nelspruit TO
Rustenburg Mamelodi G
Mafikeng SPoRwEeTtoORIAJohannesburg Middelburg MBABANE MAPUTO O W|
H
GAUTENG Ermelo EN
Vryburg Klerksdorp Manzini Siteki T
Vaal River SWAZILAND O
G
Wakkerstroom MKHUZE O
GAME
Kroonstad RESERVE
ROYAL Newcastle ITGHAAMLAE Sodwana
Welkom Bethelhem NATAL RESERVE Bay
FREE STATE PhuthatijabaNAPTAIORNKARL G LadysmitDhundee HILMUUFHOlLuLUnOdWZiEI- GSTR ELAUTCEIRA
Bloemfontein TeyateyanengS B EEstcourt KWATZuUgeLlaU R-iverGAME RESEERmVEpangenWiEPTALRAKND
N NATAL
MASERUE DUKRHAAKHENLASMBEBRAG- Pietermaritzburg Dukaza
K PARK (Stanger)
MafetengA LESOTHO
R Durban
D
Colesburg E CAPE ST
EACSATPEERTNra nskei Kokstad WILD CMOAKAMPoBrAt TSIh NeApTsUtoRnEe
Middelburg RESERVE
Queenstown Mthatha Port St Johns
(Umtata)

Cradock HLULEKA NATURE w
MOUNTAIN ZEBRA RESERVE w
ANDADTOIO NNEAALTELIP OPHANARANKLT P ARKKing WilliTBaoimswh’nso East LondoDnWERSEAS ENRAVTEURE IONCDEIAANN M32e00tr00e00s w.roug
Grahamstown h
1500 g
Uitenhage u
Port Alfred 1000 id
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Port Elizabeth 500 s.c
200 om
100
5
0 100 km 0
Introduction to
South Africa
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W South Africa is a large, diverse and incredibly beautiful
H
ER country. The size of France and Spain combined, and
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T roughly twice the size of Texas, it varies from the
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G picturesque Garden Route towns of the Western Cape
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| to the raw subtropical coast of northern KwaZulu-Natal,
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H with the vast Karoo semi-desert across its heart and one
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of Africa’s premier safari destinations, Kruger National
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G Park, in the northeast. It’s also one of the great cultural
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meeting points of the African continent, a fact obscured by
decades of enforced racial segregation, but now manifest
in the big cities.
Many visitors are pleasantly surprised by South
Africa’s excellent infrastructure, which draws
favourable comparison with countries such
as Australia or the United States. Good air
links and bus networks, excellent roads and a
growing number of first-class B&Bs and guest-
houses make South Africa a perfect touring
country. For those on a budget, mushrooming backpacker hostels and
backpacker buses provide cost-efficient means of exploring.
Yet despite all these facilities, South Africa is also something of an enigma –
after so long as an international pariah, the “rainbow nation” is still struggling
w to find its identity. The country was organized for the benefit of whites, so
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it’s easy to get a very white-oriented experience of Africa. Most of the tourist
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.ro industry remains white-run and, as a visitor, you’ll have to make an effort to
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g meet members of the country’s African majority on equal terms. Apartheid
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g may be dead, but its heritage still shapes South Africa in a very physical way.
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id Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the layout of towns and cities; the
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.c African areas – often desperately poor – are usually tucked out of sight.
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m South Africa’s population doesn’t reduce simply to black and white. The
majority are Africans (79.5 percent of the population); whites make up
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9 percent, followed by coloureds (just under 9 percent) – the descendants
of white settlers, slaves and Africans,
Fact file
who speak English and Afrikaans and
comprise the majority in the Western I|
(cid:115) Covering 1,219,090 square N
Cape. The remainder (2.5 percent) kilometres, South Africa has a TR
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is comprised of Indians, who came population of 49 million and D
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to South Africa at the beginning of eleven official languages: Zulu, C
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the twentieth century as indentured Xhosa, Afrikaans, Pedi, English, IO
Ndebele, Sotho, Setswana, N
labourers; most of the Indian commu- siSwati, Venda and Tsonga. The |
W
nity live in KwaZulu-Natal. country’s religions comprise H
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Even these statistics don’t tell the Christianity (68 percent), Islam R
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whole story. A better indication of (2 percent), Hinduism (1.5 T
percent) and indigenous beliefs O
South Africa’s diversity is the plethora
(28.5 percent). GO
of official languages, most of which
(cid:115) South Africa is a multiparty |
represent a distinct culture with rural W
democracy, the head of H
roots in different parts of the country. In E
state being President Jacob N
each region you’ll see distinct styles of Zuma. Parliament sits in Cape T
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architecture, craftwork and sometimes Town, the legislative capital, G
dress. Perhaps more exciting still are while Pretoria is the execu- O
tive capital, from where the
the cities, where the whole country
President and his cabinet
comes together in an alchemical blend
run the country. The judicial
of rural and urban, traditional and capital is Bloemfontein, where
thoroughly modern. the Supreme Court of Appeal
Crime isn’t the indiscriminate sits, though the Constitutional
Court is in Johannesburg.
phenomenon that press reports suggest,
Each of the nine provinces has
its own government.
(cid:3)
S (cid:115) South Africa has the most
tree advanced economy in Africa,
t pe with well-developed mining,
rform manufacturing, agricultural
er, C and financial sectors. The
a country also has one of the
p
e To greatest disparities of wealth
wn in the world.

(cid:115) South Africa’s richest and, w
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with 3.2 million inhabit- w
ants, most populous, city is .ro
Johannesburg (aka Jo’burg, ug
Egoli or Jozi), which single- hg
handedly generates nearly uid
a tenth of Africa’s GDP. The e
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capital of South Africa’s .c
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smallest province, it’s the m
arrival point for half of all
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tourists to South Africa.
but it is an issue. Really, it’s a question of perspective – taking care but not
becoming paranoid. Statistically, the odds of becoming a victim are highest
I| in downtown Johannesburg, where violent crime is a daily reality. Other
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TR cities present a reduced risk – similar to, say, some parts of the United States.
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E hile you could circuit the whole of South Africa in a matter

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O of weeks, a more satisfying approach is to focus your attention

GO on one section of the country. Every one of the nine provinces

| holds at least a couple of compelling reasons to visit, although,
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H depending on the time of year and your interests, you’d be wise to concen-
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N trate on either the west or the east.

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O The west, best visited in the warmer months (Nov–April), has the

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O outstanding attraction of Cape Town, worth experiencing for its match-
less setting beneath Table Mountain, at the foot of the continent. Half
a day’s drive from here can take you to any other destination in the
Western Cape, a province which owes its distinctive character to the
fact that it has the longest-established colonial heritage in the country.
You’ll find gabled Cape Dutch architecture, historic towns and vineyard-
covered mountains in the Winelands; forested coast along the Garden
Route; and a dry interior punctuated by Afrikaner dorps (towns) in the
Little Karoo.
(cid:4)

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