Camdeboo

Camdeboo National Park was declared in 2005 in the Eastern Cape province and covers some 194 km² that completely surround the town of Graaff-Reinet, the fourth oldest in South Africa, a very unusual configuration. The territory had previously been a municipal nature reserve, managed locally for decades before its transfer to SANParks.

Its most spectacular feature is the Valley of Desolation: a set of dolerite columns up to 120 metres high that rise above the Camdeboo plain. They formed when basaltic magma was injected some 190 million years ago between the Karoo sediments and crystallised into a far harder rock; later erosion removed the soft surrounding material and left the pillars standing. It is one of the most photographed geological formations in the South African interior and offers a panorama over the plain and over the Nqweba dam, which occupies the centre of the park.

The vegetation is Karoo with elements of thorn scrub and grassland, in the transition between biomes, and it supports kudu, springbok, blesbok, black wildebeest and Cape buffalo, as well as a birdlife with cliff-nesting raptors such as Verreaux's eagle, which breeds on the dolerite crags. The dam draws waterbirds and is an important element of the landscape, although its level fluctuates greatly with the region's recurrent droughts.