Camdeboo National Park

Camdeboo is unusual in that it encircles a town: Graaff-Reinet sits inside the park's boundary, with about 19,000 hectares of Karoo veld and dolerite hills around it. The centrepiece is the Valley of Desolation, where columns of dolerite up to 120 metres high stand on the edge of a plateau above a scree valley, the result of erosion stripping softer rock from around harder intrusions over roughly a hundred million years. A road climbs to the rim and short paths lead to viewpoints looking straight down the columns, with the town and the Camdeboo plains beyond - the classic time to be there is late afternoon when the rock turns orange. The game section holds Cape mountain zebra, kudu, buffalo and springbok on the flats near the Nqweba Dam, and the birding along the dam is good when there is water, which in this climate is not always.

What you actually see

• The dolerite columns - pillars up to 120 metres standing above a scree valley.
• The town inside the park - Graaff-Reinet completely surrounded by the reserve.
• The Karoo plains - the Camdeboo flats seen from the plateau rim at sunset.
• The dam section - game and birds around Nqweba when the water is there.

When to go

March to May and September to November; late afternoon for the Valley of Desolation. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The Nqweba Dam is often very low or dry, and the birding depends on it. Summer heat exceeds forty degrees. The valley viewpoints have unfenced edges. Predators are absent, so this is scenery and plains game rather than a big-five park.

Nearby

Graaff-Reinet's Drostdy and church are in the middle of the park; the Owl House at Nieu-Bethesda is north.