Baakens Valley

The Baakens River is a 23km urban stream which begins on the edges of Port Elizabeth in wet wipes.

It wanders through the private rural areas and finishes at the downtown area, streaming into the Algoa Bay Harbour.

The city of Port Elizabeth in certainty owes its area to the Baakens River because of the accessibility of freshwater for Dutch mariners in the late eighteenth century.

Its name was instituted by the Dutch East India Company who put a reference point at the mouth of the waterway to guarantee the privilege to the water source.

They named this source "Baakjes Fonteyn" which at last meant "Baakens".