City of the Month - Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa and, as the judicial capital of the nation.

Bloemfontein is popularly and poetically known as "the city of roses", owing to the abundance of these flowers and the annual rose festival held there. The city's Sesotho name is Mangaung, meaning "place of cheetahs".

Bloemfontein is situated on dry grassland at at an altitude of 1,395 metres above sea level. The city is home to 369,568 residents, while the Mangaung Local Municipality has a population of 645,455. Bloemfontein is served by Bloemfontein Airport.

Allthough historically a predominantly Afrikaner settlement, Bloemfontein was officially founded in 1846 as a fort by British army major Henry Douglas Warden as a British outpost in the Transoranje region, at that stage occupied by various groups of peoples including Cape Colony Trek Boers, Griqua and Basotho. Although modern day Bloemfontein has a reputation for its flowers in an otherwise arid region, the origin of the city's name is unclear. Popular legends include an ox named "Bloem" owned by one of the pioneer farmers that was taken by a lion near a fountain on his property, while another story names Jan Blom (1775–1858), a Korana KhoiKhoi leader who inhabited the area. Bloemfontein literally means fountain of flowers or flower spring in Dutch. With colonial policy shifts, the region changed into the Orange River Sovereignty (1848–1854) and eventually the Orange Free State Republic (1854–1902). From 1902–1910 it served as the capital of the Orange River Colony and since that time as the provincial capital of the Free State. In 1910 it became the Judicial capital of the Union of South Africa.

A railway line was built in 1890 connecting Bloemfontein to Cape Town.

The writer J. R. R. Tolkien was born in the city on 3 January 1892, though his family left South Africa following the death of his father, Arthur Tolkien, while Tolkien was still a child (1895). He recorded that his earliest memories were of "a hot country."

Second Anglo-Boer War/South African WarIn 1899, the city was the site of the Bloemfontein Conference, which failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second Boer War. The conference was a final attempt to avert a war between Britain and the South African Republic. With its failure the stage was set for war, which broke out on 11 October 1899.

The rail line from Cape Town provided a centrally located railway station, and proved critical to the British in occupying the city later.

On 13 March 1900, following the Battle of Paardeberg, British forces captured the city and built a concentration camp nearby to house Boer women and children. The National Women's Memorial, on the outskirts of the city, pays homage to the 26,370 women and children as well as 1,421 old men (Also 14,154 black people, though some sources feel that the records are unsatisfactory, and that this number could be as high as 20,000) who died in these camps in various parts of the country.

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National Park of the Month - Addo Elephant National Park

The original section of the park was founded in 1931,[1] in part due to the efforts of Sydney Skaife, in order to provide a sanctuary for the eleven remaining elephants in the area. The park has proved to be very successful and currently houses more than 450 elephants and a large number of other mammals.

Expansion
The original park has subsequently been expanded to include the Woody Cape Nature Reserve that extends from the Sundays River mouth towards Alexandria and a marine reserve, which includes St. Croix Island and Bird Island, an important breeding habitat for gannets and penguins, not to mention a large variety of other marine life. Bird Island is home to the world's largest breeding colony of gannets - about 120,000 birds - and also hosts the second largest breeding colony of African penguins, the largest breeding colony being St Croix island. This forms part of the plan to expand the 1,640 km² Addo National Elephant Park into a 3,600 km² Greater Addo Elephant National Park.

The expansion has meant not only that the park contains five of South Africa's seven major vegetation zones (biomes) but also that it is probably the only park in the world to house the so-called "Big 7" (elephant, rhinoceros, lion, buffalo, leopard, whale and great white shark) in their natural habitat.

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Elephant Sanctuary - Hartebeestpoort

The Elephant Sanctuary provides a safe haven for our elephants and offers a unique platform for guest education and interaction.

All our programs are guest and elephant driven, which means the most important part of our operation is to ensure happy elephants and satisfied guests. The close encounter with elephants you experience at The Elephant Sanctuary truly is one of a kind.

All our elephants are African Elephants (Loxodonta Africana) whose trust we’ve gained through our unique reward based training. We believe in forming bonds between humans and elephants. To this end, all our elephants are exercised and stimulated daily, which provides a firm foundation for trust.

The Elephant Sanctuary is a family orientated operation catering for both young and old. We focus on education through interaction, so you will not only learn a lot about elephants, but also get to touch, feel, feed, walk trunk-in-hand and even ride these magnificent animals. Elephants are highly intelligent and delightful – when meeting them you will discover that each one has a different character, personality and temperament.

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City of the Month - Pretoria

Pretoria - The Capital of South Africa. Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital. Pretoria is contained within the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality as one of several constituent former administrations (among which also Centurion and Soshanguve). Pretoria itself is sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Tshwane" in a controversial proposed name change, the status of which is still being decided as of 2011.

The city's original name was Pretoria Philadelphia ("Pretoria of brotherly love"). It gave its name to the Pax Praetoriana, referring to the country's relative stability.

Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as The Jacaranda City.

The Southern Transvaal Ndebele occupied the river valley, which was to become the location of the city of Pretoria, by around 1600.[3]

During the difaqane in Natal, another band of refugees arrived in this area under the leadership of Mzilikazi. However, they were forced to abandon their villages in their flight from a regiment of Zulu raiders in 1832.

Pretoria itself was founded in 1855 by Marthinus Pretorius, a leader of the Voortrekkers, who named it after his father Andries Pretorius. The elder Pretorius had become a national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over the Zulus in the Battle of Blood River. Andries Pretorius also negotiated the Sand River Convention (1852), in which Britain acknowledged the independence of the Transvaal. It became the capital of the South African Republic (ZAR) on 1 May 1860. The founding of Pretoria as the capital of the South African Republic can be seen as marking the end of the Boers' settlement movements of the Great Trek.

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National Park of the Month - Bontebok National Park

Bontebok National Park is a species-specific national park in South Africa. It was established in 1961 to ensure the preservation of the bontebok. It is the smallest of South Africa's national parks, covering an area of 27.86 km² The park is part of the Cape Floristic Region, which is a World Heritage Site. The park is located 6 km south of Swellendam, in the foothills of the Langeberg Mountains. It is bordered to the south by the Breede River.

Other conservation at the park includes the protection of the endangered fynbos veld type and the coastal renosterveld, one of the largest remaining "renosterveld islands", which contains several plant species that are found nowhere else in the world. In total, the park has nearly 500 grasses and other plant species. Other indigenous species at the park include the clawless otter, Stanley's bustard and the blue crane. Rheboks, Cape Grysboks, duikers, red hartebeests and mountain zebras can also be found there. There are over 200 bird species.

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City of the month - Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa. The city the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many government offices are located. The city is famous for its harbour as well as its natural setting in the Cape floral kingdom, including such well-known landmarks as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is also Africa's most popular tourist destination.

Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was originally developed by the Dutch East India Company as a victualling station for Dutch ships sailing to Eastern Africa, India, and the Far East. Jan van Riebeeck's arrival on 6 April 1652 established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa. Cape Town quickly outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in South Africa.

Today it is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, reflecting its role as a major destination for immigrants and expatriates to South Africa.

Highlights in Cape Town include:
The V&A Waterfront
Table Mountain
Robben Island
Cape Town Castle
Company Gardens
Signal Hill
Camps Bay
Number of fine beaches

Cape Town is within a forty minute drive from:
Houtbay
Chapman's Peak
Cape Point
Cape Peninsula National Park
Simons Town and Boulders Beach
The Cape Winelands

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The Big Five

The phrase Big Five game was coined by white hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. The term is still used in most tourist and wildlife guides that discuss African wildlife safaris.

The African Elephant - Loxodonta africa
A very large herbivore having thick, almost hairless skin, a long, flexible, prehensile trunk, upper incisors forming long curved tusks of ivory, and large, fan-shaped ears.

Black Rhinoceros - Diceros bicornis
A large, thick-skinned herbivore having one or two upright horns on the nasal bridge. Rhinoceros may refer to both Black Rhinoceros and White rhinoceros.

Cape Buffalo - Syncerus caffer
A large horned bovid. Buffalo are sometimes reported to kill more people in Africa than any other animal, although the same claim is also made of hippos and crocodiles.[6] It is considered the most dangerous of the Big Five.

Lion - Panthera leo
A large carnivorous feline of Africa and northwest India, having a short tawny coat, a tufted tail, and, in the male, a heavy mane around the neck and shoulders.

Leopard - Panthera pardus
A large, carnivorous feline having either tawny fur with dark rosette-like markings or black fur.