At The Nest

Aliwal North has a handful of attractions to keep you occupied, including a museum made up of a 19th-century library and the Old Dutch Reformed Church (five minutes’ drive). It also edges the North Golf Club – one of the best nine-hole courses in South Africa (10 minutes) – and has hot springs for rounding off sessions on the green with relaxing dips. Next, linger around Lady Grey, another of the area's top towns, for wild swims in the dam’s rockpool (45 minutes); this Victorian-style settlement is circled by the Witteberg Mountains, near the third-highest pass in South Africa, so it’s also a hotspot for hiking. Hightail it to the Historical Smithfield Cemetery (50 minutes) afterwards, home to war graves and the final resting place of key local figures, then continue poking around the country’s past at the Pellissier House Museum (an hour), one of the Free State’s oldest buildings. Mix things up with a visit to the Oviston Nature Reserve (an hour), a 16,000-hectare protected area on the Gariep Dam’s southern side, with plains game including ostriches, springbok, oryx and zebras to catch a glimpse of.