The Post Office Tree
Prefects
The post office tree is located in Mossel bay, which is a harbor town on the Southern Caps of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the western Cape province. The post office tree is an ancient milk wood tree (Sideroxylon inerme) It is believed to be the country’s very first mail box. The South African main system started because of this gnarled milk wood tree.
In 1500, one of the common commanders of Cabral ships Pedro De Ataide, lost much of his fleet in a storm off the southern cape, before returning India, he wrote a message reporting the damage and warning of rough waters to the East. He tucked the massage in a boot dangling from a milk wood tree near a spring, where sailors often drew water. Miraculously the massage was received by commander of the 3rd East India fleet Joao De Nova, the very next year. This is how the post office system stand in the country. The tree became a de Facto post office box, where the sailors exchange letters protected in boots, ion pots or beneath rocks.
The tree now believes to be approximately six hundred years old. Still continues of send and receive mails. A large post office box shaped like a giant boot has been constructed beneath the tree, where people can send letters anywhere in the world. Today all out going mails from this letter box have a special flank to commemorate the importance of this tree as the first post office of south Africa. Now the tree is located in the Bartholomew, Dias Museum complex located in Mossel Bay. If you are wished to see this place admission is free. However small fee you can board a recreation of Bartholomew Dias Caravel. The shop in the maritime museum sells post cards stamps for sending mails all over the world.