Blog

The Karoo: a long history of time
It’s amazing what people miss in the Karoo. And astonishing what a difference it would make to your visit if you knew what you were looking at. It’s not easy to find out though, it’s like a kind of academic secret; you have to plough through wads of articles, papers...

A Tailormade Safari through Botswana
Botswana, a country the size of France, sits centrally in Southern Africa. A roughly almost round territory, it is bounded by Namibia to the west, the Caprivi Strip (Zambezi region), and Zambia to the north, and Zimbabwe and South Africa to the south. Oddly...

Desert Keeping: conservation in the Karoo
You might see the Karoo as a vast vista of sand and nothing much. But in fact the desert is a vibrant environment for both fauna and flora – a fascinating encapsulation of the past and an enduring future. There is so much that has survived all the perils of...

Choose your Tailor-Made Safari to Namibia
Sometimes there are spaces where the silence is so vast and so ancient, you feel as though time as you know it, has ceased to exist – or never existed at all. While not everyone may want to visit the desert, the Namib boasts the kind of vast dry vistas that move the...

DESERT FARMING: THE VALUE OF THE KAROO
The Karoo is a vast area in southern Africa. An arid to semi-arid region, it covers parts of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces. In excess of 400,000 kms, the Karoo was once, 250 million years ago, a vast inland sea. Today, under the vast,...

Caprivi Bird Watching: ultimate bird watching in the wild
The Caprivi Strip is a lush corner in the far northeast of Namibia. The Caprivi Game Reserve, now encompassed in the newly-established Bwabwata National Park, features substantial herds of elephant, zebra, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, antelope, lion, cheetah, leopard,...

Solitude and Wellbeing: travelling in the desert
“The Karoo has a breath-taking beauty. A peculiar characteristic of this great inland plateau is that the scenery possesses a primeval solitude and silence…the primitive simplicity of a country just come from the hands of the Creator.” ~ James Byrne There is no doubt...

Hiking in the Karoo: best practice tips
Hiking in any desert carries certain dangers, and the Karoo is no different. Advice comes from veteran hikers who want to warn of the issues you may face, but at the same time motivate a keenness to participate in the most intense enjoyment of scenery and sensation...

Old Souls: plants of the Karoo
The Karoo Basin was formed over millions of years; deep in ancient times and under different climates when thousands of metres of sediments were deposited, and which now represent the Karoo rocks. This very age of the area gives the Karoo its mystery and fascination –...

Karoo Campfires: myths in a magical desert
While wandering in the silence of the Karoo, viewing ancient hills against a vibrant sunset, wondering at the iconic rocky nubs of koppies under starlight, the mind turns to magic – all those strange myths and legends of the past, and the people who drew meaning from...