Coastal East London, South Africa, 470 mi/760 km south of Johannesburg, was established in 1836 by the British as a military post, which they used as a base during the Xhosa wars.
Today it has the wonderful East London Museum, with excellent anthropological displays, including the only known dodo egg and a stuffed coelacanth (a fish thought to have been extinct for more than 70 million years—until one was netted near East London in 1938).
While in town, also see the Gately House museum. Lovely Victorian buildings in the city center, nice beaches (popular with surfers) and an aquarium round out the city.
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