Northern Cape Introduction

The Northern Cape is South Africa's largest province. It is a sparsely populated province, of which a large area falls in a semi arid environment. The western areas of the Northern Cape, which includes most of Namakwa, and a small section of the Green Kalahari fall into the winter rainfall area, (April to September.) These two subregions give you breathtakingly beautiful displays of wild flowers from late July to November.

Kalahari, an unspoilt wilderness

[Click for bigger area map]

The province is dominated by the Karoo Basin. The south and south-east of the province is high-lying in the Roggeveld and Nuweveld districts.The central areas are generally flat with interspersed salt pans. The north is primarily Kalahari Desert, characterised by parallel red sand dunes and acacia tree dry savanna.

The Kalahari area is home to the large Kgalagadi Trans-frontier Park and Augrabies Falls National Park with some smaller exclusive game reserves. This unique semi arid area offers the visitor some breath taking views of unspoilt wilderness and wild life that has adapted remarkable to these arid conditions.

On the west side of the Northern Cape one finds its capitalKimberley. Kimberly is famous for its diamond legacy. One of Kimberley’s major attractions, the Big Hole, was once a flat-topped hill and is now an awesome hole - the largest hand-dug excavation in the world - dug by picks, shovels and sheer determination, measuring 215 metres deep with a surface area of some 17 hectares and a perimeter of 1,6 km.