Northern Cape

The Northern Cape consists of wide-open spaces, big African skies and a number of unique national parks. Home to the ancient San people; the Northern Cape offers the tourist a very different experience of the South African landscape. Once the hub of the gold rush days, this province boasts a colourful history as well as a number of cultural tourist attractions. This part of the world is also well known for its incredible annual floral display that takes place in Namaqualand once a year.

During August and September, the area of Namaqualand is transformed into a brilliant carpet of wild flowers. The area is world-famous for its transformed landscape and floral beauty and photographic safaris to the area are very popular with both local and international tourists. Nowadays, it can be said that the Namaqualand experiences something of a `gold rush’ during peak season.

The Northern Cape lies to the south of its most important asset, the mighty Orange River, which provides the basis for a healthy agriculture industry. The landscape is characterised by vast arid plains with outcroppings of haphazard rock piles. The cold Atlantic Ocean forms the western boundary. Apart from a narrow strip of winter-rainfall area along the coast, the Northern Cape is a semi-arid region with little rainfall in summer. The weather conditions are extreme cold and frosty in winter, and extremely high temperatures in summer.