FOR first-time venturers into the vast, arid piece of South Africa we called the Karoo, it isn’t always love at first sight. It takes a while to fall for the Karoo’s charms, to appreciate the beauty of its big skies and stony plains, its bossie-studded koppies, flat, blue ridges and its serene little dorps.
It often seems such an empty, lonely place, its endless vistas broken only here and there by a solitary windmill, a herd of dusty sheep or an isolated farm house guarded by the obligatory twin palm trees.
All this wide open space can be intimidating – or exhilarating when you start to breath in deeply the crisp champagne air and to develop a feel for what the Karoo is all about.
One of easiest ways to fall in love with South Africa’s vast heartland is to spend a while in the Karoo National Park, near Beaufort West. It is a very special park as it is, in a way, a distillation of all that is unique and wonderful about this arid region. The park’s proximity to the N1 makes it an ideal overnight stop between Cape Town and Johannesburg but you really need at least a couple of days to explore this magnificent piece of untouched Karoo.
Apart from anything else, the game reserve is absolutely five-star when it comes to hospitality. It is a perfect example of how South African National Parks offers its visitors outstanding wilderness experiences while ensuring that their visits are as comfortable and pleasant as possible.
Accommodation options include attractive, beautifully situated Cape Dutch chalets and cottages, one of the loveliest, bird-filled camping areas in South Africa and isolated cottages and houses along the various 4X4 routes. Our favourite of these is Afsaal, a little shepherd’s cottage in the middle of nowhere, overlooking a windmill and miles and miles of unspoilt Karoo veld. At night, when you are stargazing on the stoep, the only man-made light you can see is the one on top of a distant radio mast.
The main camp has an excellent restaurant – its lamb dishes are legendary – and there is a swimming pool, an excellent interpretative centre, a bossie trail and a fossil trail. The fossil trail is fascinating , taking the visitor back millions of years to a time when strange creatures like Old Shovel Nose and Needle Mouth walked these ancient, now fossil-rich plains.
The bossie trail shows off an amazing variety of tough little plants that have evolved to cope with the flinty terrain and scarcity of water. It is these bossies that give the famous Karoo lamb its unique herby flavour.
This national park is renowned for its birding, both in camp and throughout the park, so don’t forget your binocs. The interesting game and the dramatic scenery can best be appreciated by exploring the network of game drives that has been greatly expanded and improved in recent years. A good gravel road now links the dramatic Klipspringer Pass through mountainous terrain to the more flat and arid but equally interesting Potlekkertjie Loop.
It is a long drive but well worth doing and make sure you stop for a picnic at the halfway mark.
A shorter loop road takes explorers to the pleasant Bulkraal picnic site, the perfect spot to while away a few hours, birding and just enjoying the Karoo’s magical silence. Then there are various interesting 4X4 routes to enjoy.
We love this park and make a point of visiting it whenever we are travelling through the Karoo. I have wonderful memories of long, scenic drives, visits to the interpretive centre, walks along the various trails and lazy afternoons in a shady campsite, watching the passing show. The birds, tortoises and other small creatures that abound in the camping area keep you entertained for hours.
However, my favourite Karoo National Park memories are our overnight stays at the Afsaal. On our first visit, the shepherd’s cottage offered only rudimentary accommodation and we reached it after negotiating a long, challenging but exhilarating 4X4 route.
The cottage is much more accessible now and has been completely revamps and transformed into rather upmarket accommodation.
What remains unchanged, though, are Afsaal’s endless open vistas, the clarity of the night skies and the splendid isolation. Could there possibly be a more powerful stress reliever than a cup of coffee on the generous stoep, watching a herd of springbok move through the bottom of your ‘garden’ as a new day dawns? I bet the old shepherd who once lived at Afsaal never needed a psychoanalyst or happy pills.
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