Kimberley in the Great Karoo is known for its Big Hole, a remnant of the diamond rush which swept South Africa in the late 19th century.
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The Great Karoo covers much of the interior Northern Cape – a hauntingly beautiful semi-desert where you’ll find more stars than people, more sheep than shops, and more sky than you thought possible.
At nearly 400,000 km², the Great Karoo is larger than Germany – with a fraction of the people and infinitely more stars. This ancient landscape, once an inland sea, is a place of endless horizons, craggy mountains, and that magical desert silence.
Whether you’re stargazing on a remote farm, passing a field of daisies or watching a troop of ‘Riel’ dancers kicking up dust, the Karoo offers the kind of road trip that’s hard to find anywhere else.
The northern border of the Great Karoo is the Kalahari Desert heading into Botswana. Its southern border lies in interior of the Eastern Cape. (See Graaff-Reinet & the Karoo.)
It’s rarely a destination in itself for our travellers, but if you’re doing an extended road trip in South Africa, you’ll probably experience a night in the Karoo.
“At first encounter the Karoo may seem arid, desolate and unforgiving, but to those who know it, it is a land of secret beauty and infinite variety.” Eve Palmer
As you pass through the Karoo, you might stop at Kimberley, a city created by the diamond boom of the 19th century. Its famous Big Hole, now a museum, marks the spot where hopeful prospectors once dug feverishly by hand in search of fortune. There’s also a reconstruction of a Kimberley Street during the diamond boom.
History buffs will also enjoy nearby Anglo-Boer War battlefields such as Magersfontein and Modder River, where the soldiers of the British Empire clashed with local Boers under the harsh Karoo sun.
Fun Fact: The Big Hole in Kimberley is over 200 metres deep and was excavated entirely by hand – one shovel at a time, by over 50,000 miners.
At the high end of the Karoo experience sits Tswalu Kalahari, luxury redefined in South Africa’s largest private game reserve. Guests fly in from Cape Town or Johannesburg for exclusive access to desert-adapted wildlife and the kind of stargazing that leaves you speechless. There are three luxurious lodges: the family-friendly Tswalu Motse, the exclusive use Tswau Tarkuni and the ultar-luxurious Tswalu Loapi.
It’s remote, exclusive, and has conservation at its core – a true bucket-list safari.
Tswalu is FAR from anywhere, so all of our clients fly in to Tswalu with a daily flight from either Johannesburg or Cape Town. Theoretically you can include it on a road trip. (But realistically no-body has the time.)
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