The Bartolomeu Dias Museum

#Bartolomeu Dias Museum The Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex in Mossel Bay is arguably the coastal town's most popular tourist attraction. The Complex is located on a grass embankment overlooking the ocean near to the small Mossel Bay harbour and Santos Beach.

The Old Post Office Tree A large Milkwood tree, a national monument, on the grounds of the museum complex, marks the spot of what is thought to be the first postal activity in South Africa. In 1501 Joao da Nova discovered a letter, in a boot under the tree, left there a couple of months earlier by another Portuguese seafarer. The boot and tree "post office" kept going for quite some time acting as postal service. Today you can post a letter or post card in a boot-shaped post-box beneath the tree. The post office stamp will read "Old Post Office Tree".

Maritime Museum If you have time to explore only one of the museums in the complex this should be it. As its main exhibition the museum houses an exact replica of the Caravel (15th century wooden sailing ship) used by Bartolomeu Dias when he became the first European explorer to round the southern tip of the African continent. He did this in 1488 after setting sail from Portugal in the previous year.