Plettenberg Bay is a seaside town on the Garden Route in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. The sandy Central Beach and Lookout Beach both have surf breaks. To the south, Robberg Nature Reserve is a rocky peninsula with trails and the Stone Age Nelson Bay Caves. Northeast is Birds of Eden, a free-flight bird sanctuary in the indigenous forest, and an elephant sanctuary. Whales come near the coast in migration season.
Clarens is a small town surrounded by its main attraction – mountains, especially since the village itself is situated in the foothills of the Maloti Mountain range of the Kingdom of Lesotho. The never-ending landscape of mountains such as the Rooiberge, the range encompassing Clarens and Maloti, also spelt Maluti, is just some of the town’s tourist attractions. The Maloti Mountains are often referred to as ‘majestic’ due to its shades of purple and blue, and its range forms a high alpine basalt plateau up to 3400 m in height with the highest peak in South Africa northeast of the range Thabana Ntlenyana at 3482 m, and the highest in the continent is south of the Kilimanjaro. Snow and frost may be found even in summer on the highest peaks.
The Robberg Peninsula is conserved for several reasons. The mainland connects to an island through a spit called a tombolo. This results from waves sweeping around both sides of the island. Similar to other rocky headlands on this coastline, Robberg Peninsula supports a diverse array of plants and animals that have adapted to this land/sea ecology. But what sets it apart is the distinctive climbing-falling dune (one of only seven on this coastline). The bedrock of the peninsula was dated to the prehistoric breaking up of Gondwanaland and evidence of this can be seen at several sites. Besides the unique and fascinating typography, evidence of middle and later Stone Age inhabitation was found in a few of the caves. It is for this reason that the reserve was proclaimed a national monument.
