South African Garden Route Mossel Bay Town Travel Information

The city of Mossel Bay is located along the Garden Route in South Africa between Mossel Bay and Storms River, the Garden Route runs parallel to a coastline that features lakes, mountains, golden beaches, cliffs and dense indigenous forests.

The Garden Route has a well-developed tourist infrastructure, which makes the region popular throughout the year. The Port of Mossel Bay is one of the most modern commercial and recreational ports on the south coast of the Cape.

The Information Canter at PetroSA (formerly Mossgas) informs visitors about the project and the production of synthetic fuels from the Mossel Bay offshore gas fields. Other attractions include the Attequas Kloof Pass, the Anglo-Boer/South African War Blockhouses and the Bartholomew Diaz Complex. Great Brak River offers a historic town with many opportunities to watch whales and dolphins along the long coastline. Game farms that are home to four of the Big Five enrich bird and wildlife.

Located midway between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, beautiful Mossel Bay is a seaside town and port on the World Famous Garden Route. This popular resort town is surrounded by a sun-kissed peninsula and the refreshing waters of the Indian Ocean.

It’s a busy summer destination as well as an ideal winter retreat. It enjoys a mild climate throughout the year but its most important feature is its status as the historic capital of the Garden Route.

Pleasure boats that travel a lot dock regularly, as well as other international mariners using the modern docking facilities. Mossel Bay is a rapidly growing tourist destination as more and more travelers discover the Jewel of the Cape Garden route. Bortholomeu Dias CrossBack in 1488, a man named Bartholomeu Dias dropped anchor in St Blaize Bay. “Aguada de Sào Bras” as it was originally known. This city later developed as an active export port for wool, ocher and ostrich feathers.

The many beautiful historic buildings in the city are evidence of the events of long ago that the city is today. In 1601, the Dutch navigator, Paulus van Caerden, renamed it Mossel Bay, as he discovered that mussels were a welcome addition to the diet of his crew. Today, the mussels harvested in Mossel Bay each spring are rated by gourmets as among the best in the world.

old post office tree

Due to its rich history, there are many museums in the city to visit, there is the Maritime Museum which focuses on navigation and ships from the early days of discovery, it houses the impressive life-size replica of Bartolomeu Dias’s caravel, the ship in which he sailed to Mossel Bay in the year 1488. It also shows models of ships from a bygone era, maps of routes to the East.

The Granery is another museum that has a permanent display of fresh specimens of wildflowers found in this region, and a good selection of photographs of the many mountain passes that link the coastal area to the Little Karoo. The Shell Museum houses a large collection of shells and demonstrates how they were used by man over the years as tools, etc.

See more about the Garden Route [http://www.travelinsouthafrica.co.za]