EASTERN CAPE CAMPSITES

More about camping in Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape is one of South Africa's most underrated overlanding provinces, and the people who know it tend to keep it that way. The terrain splits neatly into three very different experiences. In the southwest you've got the tail end of the Garden Route - Tsitsikamma, Nature's Valley, the start of the Baviaanskloof - where forest camping along rivers and coastal trails is the drawcard. Head inland and the Karoo takes over: Graaff-Reinet, the Valley of Desolation, Mountain Zebra National Park - wide open spaces, cold nights, and the kind of silence that makes you realise how loud your normal life is. Then there's the Wild Coast, which is in a category of its own. Gravel roads that test your clearance, rivers you might have to wait out, and campsites perched above some of the most dramatic coastline in Africa. The Wild Coast rewards patience and punishes rushing. High clearance is essential for most of it, 4x4 for anything off the main coastal route. The Eastern Cape also covers a substantial chunk of the Drakensberg foothills on its northern boundary: the eastern approach to Rhodes and Naude's Nek is one of the great mountain passes in the country, accessible only in dry conditions. If you've only been here once, you've barely started.