Limpopo travel guide

Few foreign visitors see much of Limpopo, formerly the Northern Province, unless travelling to the northern reaches of Kruger National Park which makes up a chunk of the eastern side of the province (and is covered in the Mpumalanga chapter). Many, however, pass through Limpopo on the Great North Road, the thoroughfare linking South Africa with the rest of the continent via its neighbours: Zimbabwe and Botswana. The importance of this route has defined development in the region but the province offers plenty more than the service stations and dusty towns dotting the highway. As well as Kruger, Limpopo has over 50 nature reserves and countless private game farms that sustain intricate African ecosystems. While much of the countryside is dry bushveld, the mountains around Louis Trichardt and Tzaneen are green and lush, forming some of the most important agricultural districts in South Africa. The Drakensberg Escarpment is a beautiful forested area and, within the Magoebaskloof range, there are spectacular waterfalls and patches of indigenous forest, providing excellent hiking territory. Further south is a region promoted as the ‘Valley of the Olifants’, an area rich in wildlife and with an interesting history. To the north, the landscape opens up into dry plains dotted with tubby boabab trees, home to the fascinating Venda people, famous for their wood carvings.