Mossel Bay is a harbour town of about 99,000 people on the Southern Cape of South Africa.
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13 Facts About Mossel Bay
2.
Origin of the name Mossel Bay has to do with the ascendancy of the Dutch shipping merchants in the late 16th and the early 17th Centuries.
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3.
Mossel Bay left an account of the disaster hidden in an old shoe which he suspended from a milkwood tree near the spring from which Dias had drawn his water.
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4.
Whilst the Port and the Refinery have, of course, had a major influence on the development of Mossel Bay, they have always worked in tandem with the growth of tourism and general commerce so that the town now boasts a balanced and vibrant economy.
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5.
South Africa installed its first democratically elected government in 1994, which brought about sweeping changes in the structure of local government throughout the country - one of the results of which was that Mossel Bay merged with the smaller, neighbouring villages of Friemersheim, Great Brak River and Herbertsdale to form the present-day Municipality of Mossel Bay in December 2000.
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6.
Mossel Bay's climate is mild throughout the year as the town is situated in the area where the winter rainfall and all-year rainfall regions of the Western Cape Province meet.
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7.
Mossel Bay is a stopping point for all major road transport operators licensed for this region.
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8.
Port of Mossel Bay is the smallest commercial harbour on the South African coast.
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9.
Mossel Bay is connected to the national rail network via a branch line to George.
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10.
Mountains to the north of Mossel Bay are an important repository of South African rock art.
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11.
Rock art sites surrounding Mossel Bay are generally located on private land, and are therefore only accessible to the public in the company of registered guides, who will ensure that the integrity of the pieces remains intact.
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12.
Mossel Bay has been a beach holiday destination for South Africans for more than a century – a situation that received a particular boost after the Afrikaanse Taal en Kultuur Vereniging bought the farm Hartenbos in the 1930s, and began developing it as a holiday resort for its members.
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13.
Mossel Bay is situated exactly halfway between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, and is therefore a popular stopping-off and resting point on the itineraries of international visitors to the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces.
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