The Richtersveld

UNESCO World Heritage Site (2007) And A CULTURAL Landscape Rather Than A Natural One, Listed For The Seasonal Transhumance The Nama Have Practised Here For Two Thousand Years, With Their Portable Reed Mat Haru Oms Houses In A Mountain Desert Holding Roughly A Third Of The World'S Succulent Species, Many Of Them Found Nowhere Else, Above The Orange River Gorge · Port Nolloth, Northern Cape

The Richtersveld is mountain desert in the far north-west corner of South Africa, where the Orange River cuts a gorge along the Namibian border, and it is one of the strangest landscapes on the continent: broken quartzite ranges and dry plains holding something like a third of the world's succulent species, a great many of them found nowhere else. Fog rolling in off the cold Atlantic is what keeps them alive. UNESCO listed it in 2007 and - this is the part people miss - listed it as a CULTURAL landscape, not a natural one, because the Nama have practised seasonal transhumance here for two thousand years and still do, moving stock between grazing areas and living in portable reed-mat haru oms domes. It is hot, remote and unforgiving. A 4x4 is required, permits are required, two vehicles are sensible, and there is no fuel or water inside. People who come here are self-sufficient or they are in trouble.

In the mountain desert of the lower Orange River at the Namibian border, inland from Port Nolloth and Alexander Bay, Port Nolloth, Northern Cape, South Africa

The transfrontier park's South African section is entered by permit with daylight access and camping inside, and the community conservancy areas are lived-in Nama land where ACCESS IS BY ARRANGEMENT rather than by right - that distinction matters and the row states it. A 4x4 IS REQUIRED, not advised: the routes are rough rock and sand with steep passes, and TWO VEHICLES TRAVELLING TOGETHER IS THE SENSIBLE STANDARD. THERE IS NO FUEL, NO WATER AND NO SUPPLIES INSIDE - fill and stock at Springbok or Port Nolloth and carry water for drinking, washing and the vehicle. Permits are arranged through SANParks for the park and through the conservancy for the community areas. Summer heat here regularly exceeds forty-five degrees and is genuinely dangerous. The flower season in the wider Namaqualand runs roughly August to September and depends entirely on the rain.

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