Drive up to the Valley of Desolation for sunset and walk the Crag Lizard Trail along the cliff edge. Next morning, walk Church Street and Parsonage Street from the Groot Kerk to Reinet House, the Old Library and the Hester Rupert Art Museum, and dine at the Drostdy. Keep a day for the Owl House and the fossil centre in Nieu-Bethesda.
Updated · Wimup Editorial
Graaff-Reinet is the oldest town in the Eastern Cape, founded in 1786 inside a loop of the Sundays River and ringed by the Camdeboo mountains. Come for the Valley of Desolation at sunset, streets of Cape Dutch and Karoo houses, the Owl House next door and Karoo lamb.
Dolerite pillars rise about 120 metres from the valley floor, with the town and the Camdeboo plains spread out below. Drive the steep road up an hour before sunset and walk the cliff-edge viewpoints while the light turns gold.
The six-gabled, H-shaped Cape Dutch parsonage was finished in 1812 and was home to the Murray family of ministers. Inside are period furniture and household collections; out back, the vine Charles Murray planted in 1870 still shades the courtyard.
The Dutch Reformed mother church closes the view down Church Street, a Gothic Revival building modelled on Salisbury Cathedral and opened in 1887. Its spire reaches about 46 metres, and it is the town's best orientation point.
Helen Martins filled her house with ground glass and her yard with hundreds of cement owls, camels and pilgrims, the outsider art Athol Fugard turned into The Road to Mecca. The village is about 50 km north; give it most of a day.
The town's 1847 library now holds the Lex Bremner collection of Karoo reptile fossils, reproductions of Khoi and San rock art and an exhibition on Robert Sobukwe, born here in 1924. It is the best primer on the town's long story.
A cruciform mission church from 1821, saved from demolition by Anton Rupert in 1965 and opened as an art museum in 1966. The collection is South African painting and sculpture, much of it from the 1960s, including Maggie Laubser and Irma Stern.
Louis Michel Thibault designed the old magistrate's seat, finished around 1806 and a hotel almost without a break since 1876. Its De Camdeboo restaurant serves Karoo lamb and venison; walk through Stretch's Court cottages on the way in.
The park's game section lies north of the dam, with buffalo, eland, kudu, springbok and rare Cape mountain zebra on open Karoo plains. There are no big cats, but visitors still stay in their vehicles throughout.
The park's main day hike starts at the Spandaukop gate on the edge of town, with loops of 5, 11 and 14 km through Karoo scrub and koppies. Rest spots at Eerstefontein and Agtersfontein break up the longer routes.
Graaff-Reinet has more national monuments than any other South African town, and the densest run is Parsonage Street, lined with restored Cape Dutch and Karoo cottages between the Old Residency and Reinet House. Go on foot.
An H-shaped Cape Dutch house across from Reinet House, the magistrate's home from 1916 to 1978.
A town house on Market Square, bought in 1912 by a former mayor and left to the museum.
Reached through Urquhart House, it covers local military history from the 1800s on.
A lane of restored 19th-century workers' cottages, now rooms of the Drostdy Hotel.
The PAC founder's grave, a declared heritage site in the Santaville cemetery.
The park's reservoir below town, with a campsite and safari tents on its shore.
A private nursery of over 7,000 species, some cacti five to ten metres tall. Book a tour.
Karoo fossils from about 250 million years ago, beside the Owl House.
Farm cheese and Sneeuberg Brewery ales on tap, at the edge of the village.
The Sneeuberg's highest peak at 2,504 m, climbed with farm permission and a guide.
The Cape mountain zebra's stronghold on the R61, 12 km from Cradock.
A Karoo village 55 km south on the N9, under one of the tallest church spires in the country.
A memorial to four activists killed in 1985, in Lingelihle township.
The town marathon, with a half, a 10 km and a 16 km trail run; a Comrades qualifier.
A nose-to-tail food gathering in Nieu-Bethesda, held twice a year.
Warm days and cooler nights, the best weather for hiking the park.
Wine tasted on the stoeps of the old houses, with Nieu-Bethesda as partner.
Clear, dry days and frosty nights. Pack warm layers for sunset at the Valley.
Mild weather before the summer heat, and the second good hiking window.
The region's standalone triathlon, run in Graaff-Reinet each October.
New Year's Eve in Nieu-Bethesda, lit by lanterns across the village.
Gqeberha's airport is the nearest with scheduled flights, about 230 km away by the R75. Hire a car there; the drive takes around three hours.
The R75 runs up from Gqeberha and the N9 links the town with Aberdeen and the Garden Route. The park, Nieu-Bethesda and every day trip need a car.
Intercape and smaller operators stop in town on routes across the Karoo. Services are few, so book ahead and check the timetable.
The historic centre between the Groot Kerk, Reinet House and the Drostdy is a short, flat walk. Keep the car for the park and the hills.
A slow stew of meat and vegetables cooked in a three-legged iron pot.
Spiced mince baked under a set egg custard, served with yellow rice.
Coiled, coriander-spiced farm sausage, the centre of every braai.
Air-dried, spiced beef or game, sold by the bag in every farm stall.
Lamb raised on the region's scrub, roasted, braaied or slow-cooked.
Lamb's liver wrapped in caul fat and grilled over the coals.
Bread dough grilled on the braai and eaten hot with butter and jam.
A cinnamon-dusted milk custard tart, the Karoo's default dessert.
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