KAROO TOUR
The sun is rising over one of the most scenic places on earth. At 1 797m above sea level, Bilthoudersbank in the Nuweveld Mountains is the highest point in the Karoo National Park – you need a 4×4 to drive up the challenging jeep track to reach the microwave and cellphone towers on the peak.
Usually, visitors to the park can't come here. My wife Ronel and I are travelling with Douwe Vlok from Heuningland Tours and our guide is Johan Moolman, one of the park's honorary rangers. The four-day Karoo Experience tour has a special concession to explore parts of the park and private farms that you can't otherwise access.
From the top of Bilthoudersbank, it's almost as if you can see all the way to the world's end, to its last precipice. To the east, where the clouds are changing from purple to pomegranate pink, peaks and koppies are stacked towards Aberdeen, about 150km away. At our feet, the Nuweveld drops down to the south, terrace by terrace and kloof by kloof, where the lights of Beaufort West are still shining. Further south, over the vast plains of the Great Karoo, you can see the Swartberg about 120km away, where Meiringspoort wriggles through to the Little Karoo.
Our group
