Bricklayer Sells Africa's Tip for Conservation Park
12/10/98
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Bricklayer Sells Africa's Tip for Conservation Park
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 12/10/98
CAPE TOWN - The South African owner of the desolate and windy tip of
Africa has sold his unique property to a trust so it can be turned into a
park.
Bricklayer Koos Malan has sold his land at Cape Agulhas, Africa's
southernmost tip and the meeting point of the Indian and Atlantic oceans,
to be developed into a conservation area when more land in the surrounding
area has been secured.
"Malan's house is literally a stone's throw away from the tip. Less than
100 meters," Barry Heydenrych of the National Parks conservation body told
Reuters.
Malan told the Cape Times newspaper he would be glad to escape the lonely,
windswept tip of the continent. "The only thing right about that place was
the address," he said. "I still don't like that place and I've never liked
the house."
The park should eventually feature restaurants, curio shops and hotels.
But the main attractions to draw 80,000 tourists to the park each year
would be the rare vegetation and a 150-year-old lighthouse.
"So many tourists come down to Cape Agulhas to see where the two oceans
meet. A whole lot of tourists would be the economic engine of the park,"
National Parks's commercial development manager Riyaan Cupido told
Reuters.
(C) Reuters Limited 1998.