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About Witsand

Flowing white dunes are cradled by contrasting red Kalahari sand. This is the home of the famous Roaring Sands (Brulsand) of the Kalahari and over 150 bird species.

 

Gemsbok, Red hartebeest, Springbok, Duiker and Steenbok are abundant here and we have a small herd of Kudu resident on the reserve.

 

Accommodation includes ten luxury, self-catering chalets (one with facilities for the disabled), group accommodation and caravan & camping sites. We have a conference facility (catering on request), swimming pools, a kiosk, dune boards, information centre and bird-hide. There is also a Botanical Meander of 3.2km with 43 plant species (sign-posted in 5 languages) and visitors are free to explore any part of the reserve by foot.

 

Day Visitors

• Accommodates 36 people at the picnic sites.
• Maximum of 6 people per site.
• Larger groups can rent the lapa on a daily basis.
• Day visitors, who have paid for picnic sites, are allowed
  to make use of the allocated swimming pool.

 

Witsand also offers
• A unique and spectacular Kalahari experience.
• Facilities for the disabled.
• Friendly personal service.
 

 

 

 

Our History

Kiosk
A small kiosk selling locally made curios, basic foodstuffs and soft drinks is open daily. However, we do not stock fresh produce and/or alcoholic beverages.

 

Information Centre
• Various exhibitions, nature books and magazines.
• Displays natural and archeological treasures occurring
  in the area.

 

Witsand means “White Sand” and the name is derived from the colour of the sand, which contrasts against the surrounding red Kalahari sands.

 

The Proclamation of Witsand as a Nature Reserve

The larger portion of the reserve was purchased in 1993 and the area gained nature reserve status on proclamation in April 1994. The nature reserve is approximately 3500ha in size, most of which comprises the unique dune system. Although, by comparison, Witsand is a relatively small reserve, it nevertheless has already gained popularity through its extraordinary splendour.

 

Archaeological/Historical Significance

Witsand has, since it’s earliest times, been the hub of human activity because it was one of the few reliable sources of permanent water in the region. Archaeologists have found several Stone Age sites reflecting the changing lifestyles throughout many thousands of years.

Pottery shards and stone tools reliably dated within the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries AD, reveal that Stone Age herders such as the Korana used the area. Tswana farmers also settled west of the Langberg but were forced back eastwards by droughts and conflicts before the nineteenth century AD.

 

George Stow, a geologist, paid the "Wittesandt" a visit in 1872 and reported that "the only inhabitants at present living there are a small tribe of Bushmen" who retained "many of their old habits and customs."

 

White traders and farmers began to settle along the Langberg in the late nineteenth century. To this day the stone walls erected by the Boer rebels, en route to the then German-occupied South West Africa (Namibia), on the high dunes to the east of the quartzite basin are visible. One can only imagine what thoughts have flowed through the minds and hearts of many people throughout the ages who have gazed across the vast Northern Cape landscape from that very vantage-point.

 

click on images to enlarge

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