Located on the Northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about 160 kilometres South-East of Cape Town and 35 kilometres, North of Cape Agulhas. The Town was named after Michiel van Breda the first mayor of Cape Town, Bredasdorp was established with the building of a Dutch Reformed Church in 1838 on the farm Langefontein. Mayor van Breda is the founder of South Africa’s merino sheep industry which, to this day, forms a large part of the farming community.
Bredasdorp was named after its founding father Michiel van Breda who was the first mayor of Cape Town. Van Breda is also believed to be the father of the merino sheep industry as he was the first to introduce this valuable livestock to the area when he started farming sheep on his farm; 'Zoetendals Vallei'. Besides his valuable inputs into the farming industry of Bredasdorp, Van Breda was also a member of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Port Trading Company and later the Chairman of the first Council of Commissionaires of the Cape.
With the town established and finally laid out, the Dutch Reformed Church in the centre of town was erected in 1842. The growing population of the town and growing church community made it necessary for the church to be enlarged and so it was done in 1856. The continued thriving community also soon saw the building of what is now known as the very centre of town, the Du Preez Building. This building was built in 1894 and is presently the host to the Cape Agulhas Tourism Offices.

Audrey Blignault, the famous South African writer, was born in Bredasdorp. Born on July 6th 1916, Audrey Bettie Blignault found a love for books and writing from a very young age. The passion grew and in 1927, at the mere age of 9, her first essay was published in the Bredasdorp-Napier-Nuus newspaper. In 1955, her first book, In Kleine Maat (In Small Measure), was published followed by numerous short stories and articles for 'Naweekpos', 'Sarie' and 'Juweel-Novelles'. Audrey Blignault was also the first presenter and organiser of 'Vrouerubriek' (Women’s Rubric) and was the editor for Die Huisvrou (The Housewife) for 11 years. After a full life of literacy, Audrey finally passed away on October 1st 2008 at the age of 92 in Cape Town.

As the Years continued and with all the artefacts having been collected from the unfortunate demise of all the ships along this treacherous part of the coast, it was suggested that a museum should be built to showcase all these treasures in 1967. This appeared to be the year for paying tribute to their unique heritage as the same year the Independent Church in Bredasdorp was also proclaimed a National Monument. With lots of planning and the help of many a community member the Shipwreck Museum was approved and opened its doors in April of 1975.

This is a land steeped in legends and mysteries, where dramatic desert landscape and weird rock formations easily trigger the imagination and plays with one’s senses. The biological diversity is matched with cultural richness in this World Heritage Site that never fails to enthrall even the most widely traveled visitor.It is a combination of the diverse habitats including sandy plains, deep-cut river Valleys and Mountains and the occasional fog that periodically comes rolling in from the Sea. This phenomenon led to the Region’s tremendous biodiversity. Sanddrift lies right on the banks of the Orange River, known locally as the Gariep. This River forms the natural Border between, South Africa and Namibia. Tucked away in the Trans Hex mining area, Sanddrift is accessible from Alexander Bay, Eksteenfontein and Kuboes, partially on tar and dirt roads. One of the last small Towns before the Richtersveld National Park, Sanddrift is the ideal place to stop-over.

The "Deutsche Schule Hermannsburg" (or Hermannsburg School) is located in the hamlet of Hermannsburg on the North Eastern fringe of the Natal Midlands between Greytown and Kranskop.

The German Private School is the oldest in South Africa and was founded in 1854 by missionaries; of the Hermannsburg Missionary Society in Germany. They built the Mission house (which today houses the Museum). The missionaries soon felt the need to establish a School and within a few years this School was well known throughout the Colony of Natal, attracting many German and non-German scholars. It is said that General Louis Botha, co-responsible for the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, is an old-scholar of the school as well.

The School has had many ups and downs, especially during the World Wars when Germans were not well received in the British Colonies. But it has managed to continue the education of young people without missing a single Year. Today it has about 200 scholars. Hermannsburg School is a private school, which receives grants from both the German and the South African Governments, but it largely owes its existence to the support of the local German community. While it still has a strong German flavour and close ties to the Lutheran church, (it is open to all though!)

Some old-scholars and past teachers of Hermannsburg School might remember it as HMB. The Schools Heritage dates back to the 1840's, when a Christian revival movement in Lower Saxony, Germany resulted in great interest in mission work. Pastor Louis Harms trained suitable young men as missionaries, sending them out with craftsmen to establish Mission Stations in Africa.

Over the next 100 years, about 240 missionaries made the journey into Africa, and all of them would come to Hermannsburg first. Here they would learn isiZulu, before travelling through Zululand, Natal and Transvaal to start mission stations. The German families in these areas are descendants of those settlers.

The Deutsche Schule Hermannsburg was founded in 1856 by the first group of these missionaries, becoming the very first Boarding School, in Natal.

The 200 Year old Mission House, was officially inaugurated as a Museum to house the History and artefacts of our beloved Missionaries. The founders were: Herr Direktor Wickert, Her Dr. W. Backeberg, Missionary Filter, Miss. Sup. F. Scriba, Fritz Scriba, Herr Struckmann, Arthur Leuschke, Henriette Röttcher, Inge Filter, Eckhart Dedekind and the first curator Werner von Fintel and of course the following curators Inge von Fintel and Petra Middleton.
In the 1860's, Pastor Heinrich Müller became Headmaster of Hermannsburg, helped transform the School from a small German-speaking Mission School into; the esteemed multilingual institution that it is today!