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You will struggle to count countries that are as well endowed with natural attractions as much as South Africa is.
A complete desert turns into the richest natural floral city in the world almost overnight in Spring only, two oceans meet at the tip of a major city, a place had to be aptly named God’s Window because it is literally a window to one of the most breathtaking views you can ever imagine, awesome scenery is within an almost walking distance from any city, so many beaches some have yet to be explored and the big five roam in any national park that you can find across the country.
This is South Africa, the world’s beauty queen of natural attractions.
| | | Follow the miracle of the reproduction of the gigantic (up to 1200kg) leatherback and loggerhead turtles in their annual nesting (Nov-Jan) and hatching (Jan-Mar) rituals in the St. Lucia World Heritage Site.
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| | | A Blue Flag is an international award given to beaches that meet standards of excellence in safety, amenities, cleanliness and environmental practice. South Africa currently has 22 Blue Flag beaches; the most in any country outside Europe.
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| Think Johannesburg and it’s unlikely that the notion of a green belt will spring to mind. Known throughout the world for its rich mineral veins of gold, South Africa’s business capital is also blessed with another natural treasure… more trees grow here than in any other urban centre in the southern hemisphere, making it the largest non-commercial forest below the equator.
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| | | Camdeboo National Park is South Africa’s newest conservation jewel, almost completely surrounding the history-rich, attractive Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape.
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| | | One of the best known and longest living trees of Africa, the baobab, the upside-down-tree, or in Latin, Adansonia digitata, is understandably a source of great lore and legend.
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| Few places in the world rival the magnificence and wonder of the Isimangaliso (previously Greater St Lucia) Wetland Park. Situated on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, this World Heritage Site’s isiZulu name tells you that ‘you are in the land of miracles’.
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| | | The Kalahari is largely a self-sustaining ecological entity in which the cycle of life is maintained through the collective dependence of its components. This is as it is in any ecosystem – but these life forms have special nobility because they have adapted to thrive in the ultimate test of massive temperature fluctuations and drought.
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| | | Little known Nieuwoudtville in the Northern Cape now has a reason to preen its feathers. It's the new home of South Africa's ninth national botanical garden and considered the ‘bulb capital of the world’.
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| | | During springtime each year, the Northern Cape's Namaqualand desert erupts into a myriad of wildflowers in dazzling array. It is said of this spectacle "you weep twice when visiting Namaqualand - first when you arrive, and once when you leave…"
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