Plettenberg Bay
| Plettenberg Bay | |||
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| Coordinates | 34 ° 3 ′ 0 ″ S , 23 ° 22 ′ 0 ″ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Western cape | |||
| District | Garden Route | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA toilet | ||
| local community | Bitou | ||
| surface | 39.7 km² | ||
| Residents | 31,804 (2011) | ||
| density | 801.1 Ew. / km² | ||
| Website | www.plett.gov.za (English) | ||
 Plettenberg Bay. View of Central Beach and the Beacon Island Hotel; in the background the Robberg Peninsula
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Plettenberg Bay ( English ) or Plettenbergbaai ( Afrikaans ) is a city on the Indian Ocean in the municipality of Bitou in the Garden Route district , Western Cape Provincein South Africa on the bay of the same name. It is a popular holiday destination and known for its picturesque scenery.
It was called Bahia formosa ("beautiful bay") by its Portuguese discoverers . The name of the coastal region later changed several times: Bahia de la Goa , Angra das Algoas , Bay of St Catherine , Content Bay , Keurbooms River Bay and Pisang River Bay .
The place served as a relay station for ships to the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia ), later also as a whaling station (until 1920). In 2011 it had 31,804 inhabitants.
It was given its current name after Baron Joachim van Plettenberg (1739–1793), who was governor of the Dutch Cape Colony from 1774 to 1785 . In 1778 he set up a signaling and marking point in Plettenberg Bay with the coat of arms of the Dutch East India Company , which also bore his name.
The Timber Store is now in ruins.
Plettenberg Bay is on the scenic Garden Route , 210 km from Port Elizabeth and about 600 km from Cape Town . To the west of the city is the Robberg Peninsula, a nature reserve that is accessible by hiking trails. It is home to a large seal colony. In front of Robberg Beach you can see seals playing and hunting in the surf.
Plettenberg Bay is home to one of the largest breeding colonies of gulls on the South African coast at the mouth of the Keurboom's River (after the "Keurboom", Virgilia capensis ).
Whales are a common sight in the bay during the mating season between July and December. Dolphins are also common.
Web links
- Official website of the municipality (English)
- Links and photos as well as information about the location at plettenberg-bay.de
- SA-Explorer: Map of Plettenberg Bay
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Peter Edmund Raper: Dictionary of Southern African Place Names . Lowry Publishers, Johannesburg 1987 (2nd ed.), P. 266
- ↑ Bossiesgerf , New Horizons , Kwanokuthula , Plettenberg Bay 2011 census (added), accessed on November 23, 2013