Bathurst Attractions

40km/25mi southeast of Grahamstown on R 67 is Bathurst (pop. 5,200), a little town founded in 1820 in what is now one of the main pineapple-growing areas in South Africa. The fruit was brought to South Africa by Dutch settlers in the mid 19th C, and pineapples were first planted in Natal in 1860. When a farmer from Bathurst saw the fruit at his barber's in Grahamstown he took some plants home and discovered to his surprise that they flourished on his land. South Africa now takes the eighth place among the world's pineapple-growing countries.

The main features of interest in Bathurst are St John's Church (1832), the oldest surviving Anglican church in South Africa, and the Pig and Whistle restaurant (1831) in Kowie Road, still a popular rendezvous.