Rooidam Campsites

The area around this site isn’t packed full of things to do – it’s in a rural sort of location where hiking and biking are your main forms of entertainment. It’s also a fab stopover spot enroute to destinations further afield, including the especially scenic Cape Peninsula around Cape Town (7.5 hours’ drive). The smaller settlement of Bloemfontein is four hours east and a top place for a quick look around one of the country’s three capital cities on your way to the mountain-studded enclave of Lesotho (8.5 hours). If you’re driving from south to north instead, consider starting off at Port Elizabeth (5.5 hours) before navigating north the same distance to Namibia’s sprawling deserts, world-class safari parks and spooky Skeleton Coast. If vast landscapes are most definitely your thing, a destination slightly closer by is the 12,000-hectare Karoo Gariep Nature Reserve (an hour and 45 minutes). Spend days here watching out for wildlife including white rhino, Cape buffalo and blue cranes, the latter being South Africa’s national bird.