Location

Excursions from the city of Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown lead you across the Great Fish River Valley, towards and over the rugged Winterberg range and beyond, through increasingly dry country to the fringes of the Great Karoo.

This is a grand region to explore, both on foot and from behind the wheel of a car - it's wild, lonely, graced by majestic mountains, broad upland plateaus and far horizons, an ideal destination for the hiker, the climber, the camper, the bird-watcher and, in parts, the game-viewer. Most of the small (and some not so small) towns of these great spaces are steeped in colonial history, all are renowned for their friendliness and hospitality.

You begin your journey at Port Elizabeth, passing through (depending on the particular route you've chosen) the industrial centres of Uitenhage and neighbouring Despatch and the attractive town of Kirkwood.

Beyond, far to the north, the high, 200-kilometre long Winterberg looms over the small country settlements of Fort Beaufort, a major hub of the citrus industry (it also has an interesting little military museum), Adelaide and Bedford, and the more substantial centres of Somerset East and Cradock, one-time home to the noted writer and feminist Olive Schreiner.

The mountains rise 900 metres above the surrounding countryside, on average 1,800 metres above sea level and at one point - the Great Winterhoek peak - to an impressive 2,371 metres. Not too far to the north and west are the equally splendid heights of the Bamboesberg, Suurberg and Sneeuberg, beneath which lies Graaff-Reinet, one of the country's most historic (and, in architectural terms, most fascinating) towns.

Middelburg, your final destination, is something of an oasis: it's surrounded by bleak Karoo semi-desert but it wears a coat of rich greenery - good underground water, tapped by a myriad boreholes, nurtures the grass, the flowering shrubs, beddings and trees of its parks and suburban gardens (this desert town, in fact, has never once suffered water restrictions).

The western route (the N9) will eventually take you to Graaff-Reinet and Middelburg via the village of Willowmore, noted for its charming Victorian buildings, and the Karoo town of Aberdeen, from where you can explore the lovely mountains of the Camdeboo. Near Aberdeen, too, you'll see a petrified forest and the immensely ancient tracks of dinosaurs that once, aeons ago, roamed this part of the country.

Highlights

• Addo Elephant National Park, north of Port Elizabeth - splendid game viewing; scenic splendour and magnificent bid life (black eagles are notable) in the Zuurberg section to the north.
• Shamwari game reserve, near the Addo National Park - a private sanctuary for the 'Big Five' and other animals; luxurious facilities.
• Olive Schreiner's house, Cradock - evocative memorabilia of this fine South African writer, icon of the feminist movement.
• Mountain Zebra national park, near Cradock - scenically superb refuge for these once-endangered animals; majestic landscapes.
• Valley of Desolation, Graaff-Reinet - lives up to its name: an awesome fantasia of jagged peaks and balancing rocks rising above the sands of the Karoo.
• Historic Graaff-Reinet - more than 200 of this Karoo town's buildings rank as national monuments; special is the Drostdy (the old magistrate's court), now a charming hotel.
• Owl House, Nieu-Bethesda, north of Graaff-Reinet - bizarre sculptures on show.

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KAROO HEARTLANDS

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