Northern Cape

The Namaqualand region, lies in the Northern Cape and conjures up images of vast, arid and uninhibited land, but also of glorious carpets of brightly coloured flowers in Springtime. It is without doubt the most scenic area to visit in South Africa between September and November.

The Northern Cape also boasts the impressive Cedarberg Mountain Range, which extends nearly 100 kms and is a gigantic mass of sandstone, richly coloured by iron oxides and eroded into a variety of weird and often surrealistic shapes, giving the Cedarberg its distinctive character.

Clanwilliam is the centre of the rooibos tea industry and here you will be able to visit rooibos packing sheds or pay a visit to the town’s veldskoen (bush-shoe) factory. The Clanwilliam Wild Flower Show, held at the end of August in the old Dutch Reformed Church, attracts many visitors.

The Kalahari Gemsbok National Park lies in South Africa’s Northern Cape and the remainder in neighbouring Botswana (where it is known as the Gemsbok National Park). Together these two parks make up one of the largest national parks in the world. In SA the park is made up of wave after wave of red sand dune and the epitome of the Kalahari is the sight of a herd of graceful gemsbok topping a dune, pausing awhile at its summit, before slowly disappearing down the other side.

The ‘Place of Great Noise’, the Augrabies Falls, the sixth largest waterfall in the world. Only 160km south of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park and easily accessible from the town of Upington.

The Diamond City of Kimberley is also found in the Northern Cape, on the border of the Free State. In its heyday it was a lively, thriving town. It was here that the allure of the Diamond industry reached its climax. You can now visit the ‘Big Hole’, where over 14,5 million of carats were extracted, and visit the museum town depicting what life was like back then.