South African landscapes

Click any photo to see it enlarged.

front

Cachet: The cachet is a detailed pencil illustration of a woman wearing an elaborate traditional beaded headdress, drawn in fine, textured shading that gives real depth and weight to the intricate beadwork and hair arrangement. Her expression is calm and direct, looking slightly downward, with beaded jewellery also visible around her neck. The portrait takes up the full left side of the cover in black and white, contrasting with the colour landscape paintings shown on the stamps beside it.

Info card

THE BLYDE RIVER CANYON — one of the great natural marvels of Southern Africa — lies within the 24 000 ha Blyderivierspoort Nature Reserve north of Graskop in the Eastern Transvaal. The reserve is 57 km long and runs in a narrow belt from a panoramic vantage-point known as "God's Window" in the south along the Drakensberg Escarpment to two high-rising peaks, Swadene (1 575 m) and Mariepskop (1 915 m), that tower at the northernmost entrance to the Canyon. The Blyde and Ohrigstad Rivers have through the years cut deeply into the escarpment, creating two gorges, the 32 km long Blyde Canyon and the shorter but more precipitous Diepkloof, which is 16 km long. The area is remarkable not only for the magnificent scenery but also for its fascinating ecology. THE GOLDEN GATE HIGHLANDS NATIONAL PARK — is situated in the north-eastern Free State. Enormous sandstone formations that rise 140 m above the surrounding countryside and glow in beautiful shades of gold and purple in the setting sun gave rise to the strikingly descriptive name of this reserve in which many species of game and bird find sanctuary. Erosion has created open caves and other strange geological shapes, while the dark-coloured Drakensberg basalt has formed dome-shaped caps and steep krantzes on top of the weathered sandstone layers. Height above sea-level in the vicinity of the Park ranges between 1 870 m and 2 750 m. THE AMPHITHEATRE lies within the 8 100 ha Royal Natal National Park and Rugged Glen Nature Reserve in the magnificent Natal Drakensberg complex. Nowhere in this complex is the scenery more spectacular than here where the mountains form a colossal amphitheatre that is 8 km long and is flanked by the Eastern Buttress (3 047 m) and the Sentinel (3 165 m). Close to the Amphitheatre towers Mont-aux-Sources (3 282 m), one of the highest peaks in the Republic of South Africa, where the Orange and Tugela Rivers rise. The summit of Mont-aux-Sources affords a most impressive view of the Amphitheatre. THE CANGO CAVES, situated at the foot of the Swartberg Mountains, some 27 km north of Oudtshoorn in the Cape Province, rate amongst the most spectacular in the world. The entrance to the caves was discovered by chance and explored by a farmer named van Zyl in 1780. They were opened to the public in 1881 and have since been declared a national monument. The open section of the Cango Caves consists of 80 caverns and corridors extending for over 3 km that contain a fantastic collection of stalactites and stalagmites. Conducted tours through the caves are undertaken daily at set times. Oudtshoorn, capital of the Little Karoo, is also famous for its ostriches.

Additional information

This cover is postmarked on 13 November 1978 in Durban, with a special cancellation featuring the same beaded headdress motif shown in the cachet. The four stamps, illustrated by A H Barrett, depict Golden Gate, the Blyde River Canyon, the Amphitheatre in the Drakensberg and the Cango Caves, four of South Africa's most striking natural landmarks. The Amphitheatre, shown on the 20c stamp, sits close to Mont-aux-Sources, the peak where both the Orange and Tugela Rivers rise, making it a significant watershed for two of the country's major river systems. The Cango Caves, by contrast, were only discovered by chance in 1780 by a farmer named van Zyl, despite now ranking among the most spectacular cave systems in the world.

You might also like

Tourism North West

1995-02-15

Tourism Northern Cape

1995-06-30

TOURISM WESTERN CAPE

1995-05-12