Wedge Beach - Plettenberg Bay, South Africa

From Wedge Beach in Plettenberg Bay, the camera looks along the curving shore toward Beacon Isle, the rocky point near the middle of the bay, as Indian Ocean waves roll in over the sand on South Africa's Garden Route.

Bartolomeu Dias first charted the bay in 1487, and about 90 years later Manuel de Perestrelo named it Bahia Formosa, "beautiful bay." In 1779 the Cape governor Joachim van Plettenberg gave the town its name, which locals shorten to Plett.

A navigation beacon has stood on Beacon Isle since 1771, and the island later held a whaling station that closed in 1916. Today the bay is a whale-watching hot spot, with southern right whales common from July to December.

Did You Know? Across the bay, Robberg Peninsula gets its name from the Afrikaans for "Seal Mountain," after its big colony of Cape fur seals.

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