East London - The river known to the Hottentots as Igaab! ab (‘place of buffaloes’) provides South Africa with its only river port of any significant size. The first vessel known to have visited it was the Centaurus, in 1688. This ship was sent up from the Cape to search for survivors of shipwrecks. On 7 February that year the Centaurus picked up 18 survivors from one of the frequent wrecks along this ‘Wild Coast’. A year later a second rescue ship found two shipwrecked survivors.

The captains of both these rescue ships reported favourably on the prospects of establishing a river port and in 1848 a proclamation annexed the area to the Cape Colony and the name of East London was given to the river harbour. Many German soldiers who disbanded from the British German Legion settled there. Most of these men were bachelors, so the British government shipped out 157 Irish girls to East London. Definitely the most welcome cargo ever landed at the mouth of the Buffalo River.

Today East London is a harbour for the export of citrus, mineral ores and wool, while considerable imports are handled here, particularly for the Orange Free State. The harbour has been dredged and the river is navigable by small craft.

Of three beaches within the city limits Orient Beach is closest to the city centre and is separated from the harbour by a long pier which was built over the wreck of the Russian vessel the Orient which ran aground in 1907. The beach is popular for bathing and surfing.

The East London Museum has probably the most comprehensive natural history exhibits in South Africa and among them is the first coelacanth, (Latimeria chalumnae), caught in the world. This primitive fish has fins resembling stumpy legs and until this specimen was caught off the Chalumna River near East London in 1938 the coelacanth had only been known from fossil remains and was believed to have been extinct for some 50 million years. There is a hall which contains a collection of Southern African shells and the museum also houses collections of moths, butterflies and insects.

The Ann Bryant Art Gallery is housed in a two-storey building bequeathed to the city in 1947 by the late Ann Bryant together with a collection of paintings originally consisting mainly of works by British artists but now also by South African artists. A model of the Knysna, which brought the first imports in 1836 and took away a cargo of bartered hides is also another popular exhibit.

Beacon Bay - Two rivers namely the Quenira River and the Nahoon River reach the sea at East London. Both of these rivers have lagoons and sandy beaches. Swimming is safe, and the reef at Nahoon produces some of the most consistently good surfing waves on the South African coast and is the venue for many surfing competitions. The whole area is a residential area and holiday resort and is called Beacon Bay.

Gonubie - The Gonubie River reaches the sea in a fine lagoon the show-place of the Gonubie holiday resort. The beach, safe for swimming, has mammoth sand dunes. The river is navigable for small boats. Gonubie has one of the most attractively situated caravan parks in South Africa and the name of the town is derived from the Xhosa word ‘qunube’, meaning wild bramble berries.

Kidd’s Beach - The small coastal resort of Kidd’s Beach lies 32 kilometers south-west of East London. The town was named after Charles Kidd who was a mayor of nearby King William’s Town in the 1860s. A great variety of fish can be caught along the many kilometers of rock formations and holiday shacks can be hired at nearby Palm Springs.

Komga - The name Komga means ‘place of clay’. The town lies in a setting of rolling green grassland and it was near Komga where Major Hans Garret Moore of the 88th Connaught Rangers won the first Victoria Cross to be awarded on South African soil. A memorial next to the road near Draaibosch marks the site where he received the medal.

Morgan Bay - This is one of the most charming of the attractive coastal resorts north of East London. It lies on the south bank of the Ntshala River and has a pretty lagoon, a fine beach and a green tree-covered coastland. Morgan Bay is named after A. F. Morgan who was the master of the Royal Navy survey ship Barracouta which surveyed the area in 1822. Morgan Bay is a favourite haunt for shell collectors.