Day 83 Fri Apr 7 Mossel Bay, South Africa 9-6:00 TENDER

 Day 83 Fri Apr 7  Mossel Bay, South Africa  9-6:00  TENDER

Highlights of Mossel Bay (MOB-001)

April 07, 2023

Port: Mossel Bay

Tour Length: Half-Day (Approximately 2 hours)

Below is the plan for what we were supposed to do today and we did see the tree.  Being Good Friday, the museum was closed.  I am continually disappointed in these excursions and the false information Oceania shares with us.  We went to a flea market for 30 minutes, then we traveled to the waterfront and saw people riding a zip line over the ocean for 30 minutes.  After that we went to the 500 year old tree that served as a mailbox.  When the tour ended, I went for a walk around the town.

MOSTLY FALSE INFORMATION

Acquaint yourself with seaside Mossel Bay on a coach tour of its intriguing highlights.

Gaze at a 500-year-old tree, declared a National Monument for its use by sailors in times past as an ad hoc mailbox.

DID NOT Find the Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex, named after the first European to arrive in South Africa.

DID NOT Wander the appealing museum complex, perhaps visiting the Maritime Museum or the Shell Museum.

DID NOT Discover highlights of beguiling Mossel Bay and explore a museum complex dedicated to the first European to land in South Africa. Enjoy an enlightening drive around Mossel Bay, a beach-blessed city in the shadow of the Outeniqua Mountains that was named by a Dutch explorer in 1601, when he found a huge collection of mussel shells in a nearby cave. As you travel along the town’s charming streets, you’ll learn that South Africa’s first post office was established here centuries ago after sailors began leaving letters in the cleft of a milkwood tree so that other sailors could deliver them on their journeys.

See that revered, 500-year-old tree, now a National Monument, standing near the Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex, which is named for a Portuguese navigator who was the first European to set foot in South Africa in his search for a spice route to the Far East. During your time at the complex, perhaps you’ll NOT visit the absorbing Shell Museum or the Maritime Museum, where a replica of Dias’ ship is on exhibit, along with early maps and navigation instruments. DID NOT Experience the compelling sites and seafaring history of enchanting Mossel Bay on this captivating excursion.

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                                        This camp ground was packed with people for Easter weekend.

                                        Mossel Bay has many stone buildings, this is the Flea Market Building

                                                       Dutch Reformed Church

...

St. Peter's Anglican above and NG Mosselbaai Church below

                                                        Post Office Tree

                                            Mossel Bay has 3 beach areas.

                                            Cave area in the wall beside the ocean.  

                              Dassies are a medium-sized terrestrial mammal native to Africa and the Middle East. They live in groups of 10–80 animals, and forage as a group. They have been reported to use sentries to warn of the approach of predators. They are considered a minor pest.  Dassies live in rocky areas where they can hide in crevices.  

                                            There is a zip liner in the center of the top one-third of the picture.

                                            Mossel Bay Point Lighthouse near the zip line.