KAROO TOURS

Karoo Experience Tour

TOUR INFORMATION

Duration

4 days / 3 nights

Format

A guided self-drive 4 x 4 tour

Formal accommodation

Next tours

10 – 13 October 2024 (FULLY BOOKED)

8 - 11 March 2025

30 September - 3 October 2025

Cost

R7 450 pp (2025)

Max Amount of Persons

Minimum of 4 & Maximum of 10 guests

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

Included:

Three meals per day (from dinner Day 1 to breakfast Day 4)
The services of a professional tour guide
All Park entry fees
Accommodation for 3 nights
Radios
The use of crockery, and cutlery

Excluded:

Personal vehicle costs like fuel, etc
Personal drinks and snacks
Bedding for the 1st night(there are beds & mattresses)

TOUR PLAN

This 4-day tour in the heart of the Great Karoo is an adventure from start to finish and will appeal to nature lovers. We concentrate on the area north and west of the Karoo National Park, with its spectacular settings.

We overnight at remote places, for the peace and quiet that the Karoo is renowned for.

During the course of our travels, we will enjoy magnificent sunsets, fossils in their natural environment and an amateur astronomer will tell(and show) us more about our unknown galaxy.

Relaxing around the fire, the smell of wood smoke invokes stories while enjoying a delicious supper.

This is a soft 4×4 tour but with enough challenges to take you through your steps. An experienced 4×4 guide will always be around to help with technical advice where necessary.

Day 1:

We meet between 14h00-14h30 at Karoo Deli in Beaufort West.

The Molteno Pass, north of Beaufort West is our first destination. The rock formations and interesting plants like cabbage trees will keep us busy.

Our overnight facility, Mountain View, belong to the Honorary Rangers Association and is in the Karoo National Park, high on the Nuveld Mountains.

An honorary ranger will accompany us and explain more about the park, it’s doings and the interesting and different plants on the escarpment.

This is the most western area where the scarce SANBI Red List plant Sterboom (cliffortia arborea) occur and we will visit a few.

After we settled into our rondawels we set of to explore this unknown and least visited area of the Karoo NP.

Our sunset spot overlooks the Great Karoo; east and west indefinitely and south to the Swartberg Mountain range. Very few people have had the opportunity to sit on these rocks and it is a privilege to be captivated by this vista.

After a wholesome meal we enjoy the merriment around the fire.

Day 2:

Those that want to, can lie in but it is highly recommended to enjoy sunrise from the mountain top.

After early coffee and rusks, we set of to the escarpment for a spectacular awakening.

Our destination today is Dunedin farm where farmer and conservationist, Johan Moolman, will surprise you with his veld knowledge. He will teach us how to find fossils and show us some in their natural setting.

We enjoy a picnic-style lunch in the veld.

With a bit of luck, we might encounter a riverine rabbit, which are abundant in this area.

Our overnight farmhouse (with an Aga) is called Riverine Rabbit Retreat near the Sak River. Johan is also an avid astronomer and weather permitting he will show us some stars through his telescope.

Day 3:

The Loxton district is renowned for its beautiful home steads and we visit a local farmer, who explain to us the joys and hardships of farming in this arid area. While a sheep is being sheared we can feel the lanolin in the wool.

We take back roads through the upper or Bo-Karoo of which some are on private land. This promises us beautiful Karoo scenery, from wide open spaces to mountains and deep ravines.

The afternoon at Amandelboom there is enough time for a relaxing hike or reminisce at the lovely fireplace.

Day 4:

After a scrumptious breakfast we drive down the escarpment(African Plato) on a private farm road. This most spectacular drive takes us into deep kloofs with cliffs, sweet thorn trees and fountains.

It will also test our 4×4 abilities. We will be doing a lot of stops as the photo opportunities are plentiful.

A 140 year old rock corbelled house is an amazing sight to visit.

The road takes us to the western border of the Karoo NP and past the place where “Sylvester-the-Lion” escaped.

We are now on the Fraserburg-Beaufort West road, that takes us back to the N1 and town.

Unfortunately, we leave civilisation behind and enter the concrete jungle, until next time!

Hopefully it is not goodbye but rather till next time!

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