There are plenty of opportunities to go game watching in the Northern Cape.

Probably the best place for this is the 3.6-million-hectare Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park – which comprises two adjoining national parks: the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in South Africa and the Gemsbok National Park in Botswana. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is big enough to support large-scale migration of game, and is the home of the famous black-maned lion, as well as cheetah, hyena, leopard and birds of prey, among many other wildlife attractions.

The Augrabies Falls National Park, with its thundering Augrabies waterfalls, is home to the rare black rhino and animals like mongoose, rock hyrax (small mammals that South Africans call dassies) and the Cape clawless otter.

The early morning fog that rolls in over the |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park from the Atlantic Ocean sustains a remarkable range of small reptiles, birds and mammals. Be on the lookout for the rare Hartmann’s mountain zebra, ground squirrel, rock hyrax and the jackal buzzard.

These are three of the larger parks, but there are a number of other reserves worth exploring, including the Tankwa Karoo National Park, revered for its beautiful landscape; the Goegap Nature Reserve, renowned for its flowers and home to the smallest tortoise in the world, the speckled padloper ('road walker' in Afrikaans); the Mokala National Park, which is well-known for its conservation of endangered animals, including tsessebe, black rhino and roan antelope; and the Tswalu Kalahari game reserve, South Africa’s largest private game reserve.

The Northern Cape's terrain offers great adventure opportunities like paragliding, 4X4 driving, river rafting and even ‘bakkie skiing’ – skiing on a board behind a pick-up truck.