At the very edge of Africa, South Africa is an explosive mix of primitive exoticism and rational modernity. Cape Town’s promenades and elephants in Kruger Park, the planet’s best beaches and tropical Limpopo, great hotels and famous wines – all about South Africa: map, tours, visa and photos.
At first sight of South Africa’s toponymy, it seems that the cities of old Europe, tired of fighting volcanic eruptions and immigration problems, took off in full force, picked up their Victorian hemlines, politely crossed the Mediterranean Sea and strode resolutely across the African continent to settle down with a sigh of relief at the edge of the Earth: Pretoria and Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, Durban, much less East London, are obvious aliens in the hot expanse of the cradle of humanity.
The blame lies with the British colonizers who in the early 19th century discovered a paradise region of South Africa – pristine, diamond and resort. Eh, well, why Russia has grown exclusively with dense forests, cold seas and permafrost?