The province is well known for the arid Kalahari Desert, the Namaqualand flowers and the Kimberley hole, to name a few.
Here, you discover the breathtaking landscapes and rich biodiversity of the Ai / Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park( ARTP) in the Northern Cape, where the desert comes alive with unique flora and fauna.
DID YOU KNOW? The ARTP spans 5 920km ² and extends into Namibia, combining the Ai / Ais Hot Springs Game Park with the Richtersveld National Park, creating a vast desert wilderness of volcanic landscapes, ancient canyons, and green pockets of rare plant life. It is one of the few places where the desert feels alive, not empty and where the natural world has adapted to survive in conditions that seem impossible.
WHY IS IT CALLED“ BURNING WATER”?
Ai / Ais means“ burning water” in Nama; perfect name for a landscape where hot springs appear in the middle of an arid desert. This is where the sun beats down relentlessly, but life literally continues to thrive. This place is all about contrast: scorching days, cold nights and a strange kind of beauty that only the desert can produce.
The ARTP is also part of the Succulent Karoo biome, one of the world’ s most important biodiversity hotspots. So, if you are a plant lover like I am, you will get a chance to spot a third of the world’ s succulent species, which live here, making it the richest succulent flora on Earth.
You’ ll see strange, almost alien plants, from the“ half-men” succulents to the tall quiver trees, all thriving in arid conditions. This is a place where plants have clearly learned to survive by being tough, clever and beautifully strange.
MARCH 2026 / INBOUND SA 67