South Africa

OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
South Africa is a land of incredible natural beauty, with over three million hectares set aside for conservation. Topography & climate Right in the southwest corner of the country, the Western Cape is somewhat anomalous. Rainfall here is in winter and is brought by huge cyclonic weather systems, which are born deep in the southern ocean. The summers are warm and dry and, generally the whole floral and faunal assemblage is unique.
Plants & flowers The following is a major simplification, of course. But generally, the southwestern part of the Western Cape consists of the Cape Floral Kingdom – or as we loosely and colloquially call it fynbos. Further north and east is the Karoo semi-desert.
Game and birds With our enormous diversity of vegetation zones and types, it’s not surprising that we have an enormous array of birds and animals. South Africa is the best place in the world to watch big game.
Unlike many other countries in Africa, where elephant herds are dwindling and rhinos are practically extinct, we have extremely healthy populations of these and most of the other animals you would expect to see on safari in Africa. And with over 900 species of birds, many of which occur in our national parks, you’ll never be able to put your binoculars down.
Our bountiful oceans We have over 3,000km of coastline and a correspondingly enormous range of sealife. If you’re a diver, you’ll be able to travel up the coast in about two weeks and dive in a wide range of marine environments, seeing a totally different faunal and floral assemblage in each spot.
And if you’d prefer to stay on the surface, you can still see an incredible array of marine life. South Africa is one of the most fantastic marine mammal watching destinations in the world. Here you can see Cape fur seals quite easily on a short boat trip from most of the major seaside towns in the Western Cape and Garden Route. You’re likely to see enormous pods of bottlenose dolphins, and you may well see the beautiful dusky dolphin near Cape Town. Common dolphins are quite common, and humpback dolphins are seen quite often from Plettenberg Bay north and east to Maputaland. Southern right whales are a familiar sight in many places off the Cape coast between June and November, and humpback whales are often spotted between August and December. Brydes whales and orcas are also seen occasionally.