The Hantam Karoo is the south-western semi-arid region of the Northern Cape. Like Namaqualand to the north, the Hantam Karoo region breaks into a profusion of flowers along with the Namaqualand region to the north. What mostly distinguishes the Hantam Karoo from Namaqualand is the type of flowers that spring up after the September – October rains. In addition to the ‘Namaqualand daisy’, a great number of bulb species also appear – many of them endemic to this area. Nieuwoudtville is called the Bulb Capital of the World.
There are several flower related attractions centred in or near Nieuwoudtville. Other attractions in the Hantam Karoo include the Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve which offers some of the best and most demanding hiking in South Africa, and the Nieuwoudtville Falls which are a beautiful sight and cool experience in the summer heat. The beautiful Tankwa Karoo National Park is South Africa’s most arid National Park, watched over by brooding mountains and quiver trees, yet covered in flowers in spring, always all space, silence and stars – except for a week in the middle of winter when it becomes the venue for the world-famous Afrika Burn festival.
There are a number of very small towns with beautiful old typical Karoo architecture and churches, such as Calvinia, and as one drives the long open roads between farms and fields, there are many broken down homesteads and old buildings that tell a story of struggle and hardship in the 19th and early 20th century, but lend the landscape a tangible history – a history prettily wrapped in floral profusion in spring.
As in much of the semi-arid areas of South Africa, there is little development, no pollution, long roads and starry, starry skies at night. In the Hantam, you will see true night skies, unclouded and unpolluted by smog and artificial light – an increasingly wondrous rarity in this world.
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