LET’S continue with our Karoo explorations this week as we wander around our country, taking a look at what makes each of our 19 South African National Parks unique and special.
The Karoo’s fairly recently established Camdeboo National Park is particularly special to me for many reasons including the fact that it is a conservation success stories that fuels my optimism about a greener future for our wonderful country.
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It almost completely surrounds the beautiful town of Graaff-Reinet, set in a horseshoe bend of the Sundays River, and it incorporates a number of diverse and very beautiful elements, including the dramatic rock formation known as the Valley of Desolation.
The park’s conservation history goes all the way back to 1939 when the Valley of Desolation was declared a National Monument of geological and scenic significance, as well it should have been.
It is a wondrous place of massive red dolorite columns, wrought over millions of years by the twin tools of volcanic action and erosion.
These rear into the blue Karoo sky like citadels of some futuristic city and frame an almost idealised Karoo scene of pastel, bossie studded Camdeboo plains and flat-topped mountains.
One of the best ways to see this natural wonder is to put on your walking shoes and do the 1,5km mountain top Crag Lizard Trail takes.
It takes about an hour to complete, is not too arduous and is well worth the effort. A circular walk, it skirts the edge of the valley, in places offering different perspectives of the rocky towers and plains – and a close encounter with the varied Karoo Mountain vegetation. A lucky walker might even spot a crag lizard, sunning itself on a rock
This section contrasts with the spiky, stony thorn tree-shaded plains section, which once was commonage and was severely over-grazed and degraded.
This led to erosion, bush encroachment, spekboom destruction and a complete altering of the veld type. Thankfully its ecological value was recognised in 1976 when it was proclaimed the Karoo Nature Reserve and it has now an important component of the Camdeboo National Park.
Since it first received conservation status great effort has gone into rehabilitation and it is now a valuable showcase of Karoo veld.
This section offers visitors a 24-km game viewing road network through the thornveld and along flat, sun-bleached ground, sparsely covered with scrawny grasses and low-growing, scrubby vegetation.
Amazingly, this rather arid land supports a wonderful array of flora and fauna, including more than 40 mammal species and at least 225 different birds.
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As the park has grown and expanded so have the facilities for visitors. These include an educational and conference centre, an outdoor boma for tour groups and six delightful picnic sites, all equipped with braai facilities.
As well as the Crag Lizard Trail, the national park offers the Eerstefontein day walk, divided into 11km, 5km and 15km routes. Overnight accommodation at the Waaihoek hut is available to hikers doing the longer Driekoppe trail.
We were thrilled to hear that the park was now offering camping facilities and safari tent accommodation alongside Nqweba Dam on the outskirts of Graaff Reinet, which has also been incorporated into the national park and provides fishing and water sport facilities.
We stayed there on our most recent visit to the Graaff-Reinet and were most impressed with the new campsite and its excellent amenities.
Many animals that once were at home on the wide plains have been re-introduced and game viewing alongside the dam and in the plains section is excellent.
Programmes to heal the erosion and to rid the park of alien invaders are well underway, too, and it is good to see how healthy the carefully monitored veld has now become.
The Camdeboo National Park success story does not end there. Conservation authorities and private landowners have a great vision for its future.
Eventually it is to be linked with the Mountain Zebra National Park to form a 520 000 hectarte mega-conservation area, more than 120km in length.
If this is achieved a great chunk of our unique Karoo landscape, together with its incredibly diverse plant and animal life, will be preserved for future generations. How wonderful that would be.
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