Port Edward is the most southerly town on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, approximately 170 km from Durban and close to the border of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The area between Port Edward and the town of Port Shepstone further north is known as the Hibiscus Coast.
In 1831 a crisis arose between the Zulu chief Dingaan and the settlers in Durban (Port Natal). The crisis caused some settlers, including a man named Henry Francis Fynn and his family, to board a ship and to flee south down the coast. These people were caught by the Zulu warriors at the site where Port Edward stands today, where the settlers and many people of the local Lengeni tribe were massacred on a hill called Isandlunlu. To this day the place has been known as Tragedy Hill and the bones of the victims can still be found on the slopes.
Port Edward is a popular tourist resort, particularly with the more affluent element of South African society. In 1925 it was called Banner Rest and was the property of TK Pringle who laid out a village and named it Port Edward honouring the Prince of Wales who later became King Edward the VII in 1947.
This peaceful little town is surrounded by banana plantations and sub-tropical coastal forest. It lays claim to some beautiful sandy beaches amidst rocks and pretty little bays where swimmers are well protected by shark nets and lifeguards during the tourist season.
There are places of interest for visitors, such as the 24 meter high North Sand Bluff Lighthouse which has wonderful views of inland and the coast from the top and there is a museum and coffee shop on the ground level.
A few km west of Port Edward there is an area known as the “Red Desert” which lays claim to being the smallest desert in the world, measuring only 11 hectares in size and looking very much like the Arizona Desert in miniature.
Port Edward’s beachfront has South Africa’s longest supertube and for those wishing to scuba dive there is a magical shipwreck to be explored only about 300 meters from the beach. The ship was wrecked near Port Edward in 1552 and is the KwaZulu-Natal coast’s earliest known shipwreck.