Great Karoo

The broad, mostly sandy, expanse of undulating plains known as the Karoo is divided between the Little Karoo, nearer the coast and the Great Karoo, which seems to stretch into the interior forever. The Karoo, which means 'great thirst' in the local Khoi-San language, receives little rain so the rather dramatic landscape exhibits interesting geological features. The broad expanse of the endless plains is broken by flat-topped mesas and kopjes (conical hills), which display interesting stratigraphy, contorted fold structures and deeply striated glacial pavements. The Karoo is particularly rich in dinosaur fossils, many of which can be seen at the Old Library Museum in Graaff-Reinet.

Many people consider the Karoo something to be endured in order to get from Johannesburg to Cape Town, or vice versa but it really is an attraction in its own right. The two national parks, the Karoo National Park near Beaufort West and the Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock are nothing like the bushveld reserves around the Kruger National Park. The vegetation is much more sparse but, strangely, far more interesting, as it's characterised by low-growing succulents and aromatic shrubs which, upon closer inspection are very beautiful and many of which flower spectacularly for a short season.

There are black rhinos in the Karoo National Park and, not surprisingly, many of the beautiful, endangered and rather rare Cape Mountain Zebra in the Mountain Zebra National Park.

Although midday can be over-bright and washed out, the quality of light in the Karoo is magnificent. Sunrises and sunsets are awe-inspiring with pastel shades of purple, blue, pink and gold filling the entire horizon. The sky before a storm is particularly dramatic, with shafts of light burning down through indigo clouds and rainbows dancing merrily just behind the thunder and lightning.

And the clear skies and freedom from light pollution makes for wonderful stargazing - the recently built Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is in the small, rather remote Karoo town of Sutherland.

As well as showcasing some very pretty Victorian houses, the many small towns reflect a sort of sleepiness, which is appropriate to their status as urban centres in a large sheep farming area.

On the edges of these vast plains lie lovely, almost unexplored mountains, with deep gullies, pretty streams and overhangs filled with rock art. And even the older buildings - one-roomed stone cottages, corbelled huts and old stone sheds are coming into their own as they are renovated as tourist or hikers accommodation.

Graaff-Reinet and Cradock offer a wealth of cultural attractions as well as some great accommodation Nieu Bethesda is the site of South Africa's best known outsider art - the Owl House, created by Helen Martins. Nothing happens very fast in the Karoo. It's a place to go to relax, to sit back and watch time move gently over the purple hills.

The Great Karoo stretches over part of the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape and the Northern Cape.