South African Habitat

South Africa is spread over the southernmost part of the African continent; Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe form its northern boundaries and Mozambique and Swaziland the northeastern border. The Kingdom of Lesotho exists within the boundaries of South Africa. It is a sparsely populated land – its area of 1,219.00 sq. km, is five times the size of the UK but its population is approximately two-thirds of UK’s 59.3 million. The South African coastal belt from the Indian Ocean in the east, to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, covers an impressive distance of approx. 3,000 km. South Africa has an amazing diversity of flora and fauna, being home to more than 24,000 plant species, almost 10 per cent of all flowering species on earth. The Garden Route along the Western Cape is famed for the lushness of the vegetation there.