Bushman's River Mouth (

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

''Boesmansriviermond'', which is its official name) is a town in

Ndlambe Local Municipality Ndlambe Local Municipality is an administrative area in the Sarah Baartman District of the Eastern Cape in South Africa, with its capital at Port Alfred. It is a predominantly rural area with agriculture and tourism dominating the economy. It ...

in the Eastern Cape province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The village is 25 km from

Port Alfred A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

, on the west bank of the

Bushman's River The Bushman's River ( af, Boesmansrivier) is an east to north-easterly flowing tributary of the Tugela River, in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg Mountain range, with its upper catchment in the Giant's Ca ...

, just across the river from

Kenton-on-Sea Kenton-on-Sea, more commonly known as Kenton, is a small coastal town on the Sunshine Coast, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It is situated between the Bushmans and the Kariega Rivers, and lies approximately halfway between the industria ...

Background

A well-known holiday resort, it is the site of many shipwrecks, the best-known of them being the '' Volo'', a Norwegian barque wrecked near the river mouth in 1896. The town was established in 1897 by farmers from nearby towns ( Paterson,

Cookhouse A cookhouse is a small building where cooking takes place. Often found at remote work camps, they complemented the bunkhouse and were usually found on ranches that employed cowboys, or loggers in a logging camp. Prior to the 20th century, cookh ...

Somerset East Somerset East ( af, Somerset-Oos) is a town in the Blue Crane Route Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was founded by Lord Charles Somerset in 1825. The Blue Crane Route follows the national road R63 from Pearston, via S ...

and Cradock) when they were granted permission to camp along the banks of the Bushman's River during the Christmas holiday season. Land leases during the early 1900s led to private land ownership, and modern development, though electricity and running water only became available in the 1980s. The

Dias Cross Memorial The Dias Cross Memorial is a provincial heritage site at Kwaaihoek, Alexandria in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. In 1945 it was described in the Government Gazette as: The remains of the original cross erected by Bartolomeu Dias ...

at nearby

Kwaaihoek Kwaaihoek is a rocky headland on the coast of Algoa Bay, at Boknesstrand near Bushman's River Mouth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is a section of the Addo Elephant National Park. It is here that the Portuguese navigator ...

is a provincial heritage site erected to mark the location of the ''

padrão A ''padrão'' is a stone pillar left by Portuguese maritime explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries to record significant landfalls and thereby establish primacy and possession. They were often placed on promontories and capes or at the mouths o ...

'', or stone pillar, planted in 1488 by Portuguese sailors led by Bartolomeu Dias. Boesmansriviermond has an active ratepayers association known as BRRAG (Bushman's River Ratepayers' Organisation) with website ww
bushmansratepayers.co.za

References

{{Sarah Baartman District Municipality Populated places in the Ndlambe Local Municipality Populated places established in 1897 Populated coastal places in South Africa