Page 77 - You - South Africa (February 2020)

PRIMARY SCHOOL Social
Augrabies Falls
Kimberly’s Big Hole
NORTHERN CAPE
At more than 370 000km², the vast
Northern Cape is South Africa’s largest
province, yet it’s the least densely popu-
lated. The largest city in the province, Kim-
berley, is also the provincial capital.
This is the ideal province to visit if
you’re in search of peace and quiet. Rough
Guides listed it as one of the world’s top 10
tourism destinations in 2016. Unfortu-
nately the ongoing drought has reached
critical levels and the province has been
declared a disaster area.
You can’t visit Kimberley without going
to see the Big Hole. In 1871 diamonds
were found on Colesberg Kopje, which be-
longed to the De Beers brothers. The dis-
covery led to a huge diamond rush and
the establishment of the mine. It spans
17 hectares of surface area, is 463m wide
and 240m deep, but the open mine was
operational only from 1871 until 1914. At
200m² the Big Hole is one of the world's
largest excavations dug by hand.
Other places worth visiting are the
towns of Upington and Springbok,
the Augrabies Falls National Park and the
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
Further south there’s Sutherland. It's
SA’s coldest town in winter and has an
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astronomical observatory.
GOTO
articles of YOU in the Classroom can
be downloaded in PDF format. Go to
you.co.za and click on the Classroom link.
COPY: CUM LAUDE MEDIA. SOURCES: STATISTA.COM; MIELIESTRONK.COM;WWW.STATSSA.GOV.ZA;THUNDERBOLTKIDS.CO.ZA;
NETWERK24.COM; EWN.CO.ZA;THECRADLEOFHUMANKIND.NET; EXPERIENCENORTHERNCAPE.COM;THEBIGHOLE.CO.ZA; BAVIAANS.NET; SANPARKS.ORG;WWW. you.co.za 6 FEBRUARY 2020 | 75
KRUGERPARK.CO.ZA; SEE SOUTH AFRICA:VISUAL FACTS, DAWIDVAN LILL (TAFELBERG, 2013); KIDS.BRITANNICA.COM;WHC.UNESCO.ORG;THEGUARDIAN.COM
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East London’s Gonubie beach Kruger National
Park
Hole-in-the-Wall near Coffee Bay
EASTERN CAPE LIMPOPO
The Eastern Cape is one of South Africa’s The Kruger National Park is in Limpopo,
four coastal provinces. It's home to the the northern-most province of SA’s five
Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve, which land-locked provinces, and also stretches
forms part of the Cape Floral Region Pro- into the neighbouring province of
tected Areas, a Unesco World Heritage Mpumalanga.
Site. The reserve is about 120km west of The Kruger is on SA’s eastern border
Port Elizabeth and spans about 270 000 with Mozambique. This national park is
hectares of rugged, mountainous terrain, world famous as one of the best game-
including quite a few dirt roads and 4x4 viewing and nature experiences in Africa.
routes. The park covers 19 633km of African
2
The coastal city of East London is pop- bushveld and savannah and is home to a
ular with tourists thanks to its beaches. wide variety of animal and bird life. It also
Another place that's worth a visit is the contains more than 300 archaeological
town of Qunu. This is the childhood home sites.
of late former president Nelson Mandela. The park is famous for being home to
The Nelson Mandela Museum is in the all five members of the Big Five – the
provincial capital city of Mthatha, not African elephant, rhinoceros, Cape
too far from Qunu. buffalo, leopard and lion.
One of the province's landmarks is the
Hole-in-the-Wall in Coffee Bay. This is a PARK HISTORY
natural sandstone arch carved out by the The park was named after Paul Kruger,
ocean waves over millennia. president of the South African Republic
from 1883 to 1900, who proclaimed the
NOWYOU KNOW park in 1898. The first time tourists visit-
The word “tourist” was first recorded in 1772 ed the park in motor vehicles was 1927,
and “tourism” first appears in 1811.They’re de- and the entry fee was one pound.
rived from the Latin “tornare” – to turn. But The first three rest camps were built in
there were tourists long before this – travel 1928 in Satara, Pretoriuskop and Skuku-
writing by Ancient Greeks, Egyptians and za. These days, about 950 000 tourists
visit the park annually.
Romans shows they went on pleasure trips.
THE IMPACT
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page 78
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name “tswaing” is a Tswana word that
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