The Eastern Cape offers lush and diverse scenery.

You can enjoy a Big 5 game drive in the morning and go hiking through rugged, wild coastline a few hours later. From Port Elizabeth, drive inland to experience the vast thirstland of Cambdeboo and picture if you will, how this region once carried a great migration of wildlife.

If you’ve time to explore further, then try and include visits to the towns of Graaff–Reinet, Grahamstown and Jeffrey’s Bay. They will reward you with their charm.

Graaff Reinet is the “gem” of the stark Karoo and this oasis town has more national monuments than any other in South Africa. Nearby is the Karoo Nature Reserve which is where you can experience the Valley of Desolation – a moonscape of desolate beauty and where some 9000 plant species have adapted to the harsh, unforgiving conditions.

Offers immense natural diversity from indigenous forest to the spare beauty of the Great Karoo, it is also embraced by the mountains of the Southern Drakensburg region. Take a walk on the Wild Side...

The Eastern Cape's Must See and Do Highlights:

• Tsitsikamma Forest.
• The Great Karoo.
• The lush Wild Coast.
• Knysna Elephants.
• Addo Elephant Reserve.
• Boviaanskloof Nature Reserve (World Heritage Site).
• Great Fish River Nature Reserve.
• Sites of great historical interest.
• Sandy white beaches.
• Renowned Hiking trails.
• Jeffrey’s Bay.
• Canopy tours.
• Historic monuments.
• Grahamstown Arts Festival.
• Golfing in Paradise.
• Knysna mountain biking and forest marathons.
• Lagoon and Deep Sea Angling.
• Sailing.
• Vast Indigenous Forests.
• Cango Caves.
• Ostrich Farms.
• Raptor and Reptile Rescue Centre.
• Cheetah Sanctuary.
• Diving with crocodiles.
• Outeniqua Tchoo-Tchoo.
• Qunu – Home of Nelson Mandela.

You simply must not miss the Owl House in the remote village of Nieu-Bathesda near Graaff Reinet. Tired of tedium and boredom, Helen Martins created an exceptional fantasy world of owls, birds, mermaids, suns, camels, flowers. Developed over30 years, this is a not-to-be-missed experience of one person’s monument to their own madness.

Across the Eastern and Western Cape try a different type of accommodation.  Sleep in a Lighthouse. You will not have to get up at all hours to ensure the lights work, nor send out ships to save distressed vessels.  But what fun it will be!

Not your average holiday accommodation! In fact, decidedly unique:  Become a Voortrekker for a night and sleep in a covered ox-wagon, (but with modern ablution facilities). Just how did the early settlers survive in the rough and hostile terrain of those days in these seemingly fragile structures?