Offshore Wonders

Offshore Wonders
The Western Cape Province of South Africa is well known throughout the world for its many natural wonders and beauty. Mention Table Mountain and immediately people know what you are talking about. What about the Cango Caves? You'd be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t know about the Cango Caves, even if they have never actually been there themselves. The same can be said for Cape Point, Cape Agulhas, Route 62 and even the Knysna Heads and the TsiTsikama Forest.

But what will happen if you mention the names Marion Island, or Dryer Island? What about Geyser Island or Dassen Island? Puzzled yet? Not to worry, you are not alone.

In Fact there are not many people who actually know about these islands. In fact the islands mentioned above are only a small amount of the island found off the coast of South Africa.

Most famous Island:
Of course the most famous island, to be associated with South Africa and the Western Cape in particular, is Robben Island. This is of course the Island where former political prisoner, and future President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, spent 27 years in prison. What was once a symbol of the apartheid era, has now become a beacon of Peace, Acceptance and Forgiveness.

Robben Island had now become a must on any itinerary when visiting the Western Cape and Cape Town. There are regular tour trip leaving from the waterfront, given tourist a chance to visit the cell in which Nelson Mandela was held.
(Read more about Robben Island here)

Fur, Feather and Research:
Although the islands off the coasts of the Western Cape are governed by the Western Cape, they are to a large extent not inhabited by man. This is not to say that they are lifeless pieces of ground, for they are in fact teeming with life.
Dassen Island for instance is home to a large Penguin colony, and can be found off the West Coast of the Western Cape about 10 kilometer west of Yzerfontein. Besides the large penguin colony the island is also home to a number of other species including the Crowned cormorant, Bank Cormorant, the Cape Cormorant, the white-breasted Cormorant, the white pelican, a number of Gull Species, the African Black Oystercatcher as well as a number of reptile and in vertebrate Species.

Dryer Island, off the south coast of the Western Cape, lies about 5 miles offshore from Gaansbaai. The island is home to thousands of African Penguins. Geyser Island forms part of the same island group as Dreyer Island but is quite a bit smaller. It plays home to about 60 000 cape fur seals.

Marion Island on the other hand is considerably larger than the above mention and excluding Robben Island, the only island to have a continuous human presence of the island. Marion Island serves as a research station which concentrates on monitoring the following: Weather and Climate studies; the interactions between marine and terrestrial systems; the life histories of seals, seabirds and killer whales; the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and the structure and functioning of near shore ecosystems.