Mossel Bay, South Africa cruise port guide

About Mossel Bay, South Africa

Mossel Bay is a harbour town of around 170,000 people on South Africa's celebrated Garden Route, 400 km east of Cape Town. It holds the distinction of being the first place Europeans set foot on southern African soil, when Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias landed here in 1488. Today it is a tourism hub offering beaches, whale watching, and rich historical heritage.

The Bartholomeu Dias Museum Complex anchors the town's historic quarter, featuring a full-size replica of Dias' caravel and the famous Post Office Tree — a milkwood used as a message drop by Portuguese navigators since 1501. The Cape St. Blaize Lighthouse provides panoramic views of the Indian Ocean and is one of the best shore-based whale watching points on the Garden Route. Seal Island, reachable by a short boat ride, hosts a large fur seal colony. Pinnacle Point has revealed extraordinary archaeological evidence of early modern human behaviour.