A number of years ago, when we first visited the Tankwa Karoo National Park, it was still very much in its development stage and only informal camping sites were available.
Apart from a small tree that gave sparse shade and the ruined mud-walled building there was absolutely nothing at our Pyper se Boom site.
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We had to provide everything we needed including water and the dreaded spade that, in some camping situations, is required in lieu of any sort of ablution facilities.
To add to our discomfort while we were visiting that seriously arid park the temperature soared to around 48 degrees. It says a lot for the Tankwa that, in spite of the extreme camping and the difficult conditions, it was one of our priorities when we returned to the Western Cape fairly recently.
Of course, camping in that magnificent park has become great deal easier. Instead of just the informal sites you now have a choice of eight luxury sites, two at Langkloof and six at Perdekloof.
Each has its very own bathroom, toilet and kitchenette and, like the luxury campsites at Mokala National Park offers a glamping experience, courtesy of Sanparks.
And there are also some comfortable chalets and cottages available for those who are allergic to canvas.
On our more recent visit the winter rains had brought some relief to this dry land and, if not exactly green and lush, the vegetation was quite healthy in certain areas of the park.
It was actually quite green and pretty, bedecked with spring-green sweet thorn trees, around our beautiful camp at Perdekloof. What a lovely site it was, ringed by mountains and so remote and peaceful.
The park was also much cooler the second time around. It was even a little chilly at times. However, we did have another extreme weather experience.
From our campsite we had a ringside seat to watch one of the most dramatic evening thunder storms I have ever seen.
It is the unique sense of space that makes the arid, starkly beautiful Tankwa Karoo National Park so special. Straddling the Western and Northern Cape border, it is one of the newer, lesser known but most intriguing of all our national parks.
This flat, rugged national park is ringed by distant mountain ranges and is situated within the succulent Karoo biome.
It boasts an amazing array of rare and endangered plants plus many endemic birds. In the dry season it is not a pretty place but it had a stark beauty all of its own.
If you visit the Tankwa Karoo, make a point of taking a drive up the steep, rugged Annaga Pass. We were amazed by the varied vegetation carpeting the rocky red and orange mountain sides.
Spiky green bushes, fat succulent plants, a fine-leafed, silvery ground cover and wispy plumes of a lemon-coloured grass – myriad little plants had found unique ways of dealing with the problem of staying alive in such a rugged, arid place.
Adding drama to this natural rock garden were the red-leafed aloes spilling over the rocky ledges, the clumps of pincushion euphorbias and the stocky, succulent, thick-trunked botterbome, strange little shrubs that look like miniature baobabs.
And the view from the top of the pass was simply awe-inspiring.
This more verdant part of the park offered a dramatic contrast to its flatter, arid plains but all of the park was so beautiful.
I often think about the Tankwa Karoo, such a dramatic national park that has left me with such a powerful impression.
I would love to see it one day after good rains have fallen and the wild flowers are in bloom. What a miraculous renewal of life it must represent and, like many experiences offered by our arid parks, what a wonderful illustration it would be of the grand circle of life.
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