Southern Africa, South Africa

The Eastern Cape

Eastern Cape province, a particularly sparkly jewel in South Africa’s scenic and human treasure chest, is perhaps best known for the famed Garden Route, which wends its 120-mile way along South Africa’s relentlessly scenic southern coast from Mossel Bay in the Western Cape to Storms Bay in the Eastern Cape. The Garden Route packs in a marvellous variety of sceneries and a fine collection of enchanting towns and luxury hotels in those beautiful miles, and Micato guests have been enjoying them on pre and post safari visits to this region for more than a half century.

The gardens the route highlights aren’t human artifacts, but natural ones: surpassingly lovely beaches, exuberant vegetation, and secluded lakes and lagoons. On or not far from the Garden Route proper are Addo Elephant National Park; Grahamstown, site of the lively National Arts Festival, perhaps Africa’s largest such event; the wild, rain-forested coastline at Jeffrey’s Bay (whose waves are legendary among surfers); Garden Route National Park, close by the nicely named town of Wilderness; and a little further east, South Africa’s only ski resort, Tiffindell, 8,920 feet up in the Southern Drakensburg mountains.