Oviston Nature Reserve

Extraordinary sunsets and landscape consisting of vast, open grassland with low “koppies” (small mountains) makes Oviston Nature Reserve truly part of South Africa’s “Big Sky” country. Situated in the north-eastern part of the Eastern Cape Province along the southern shoreline of the mighty Lake Gariep, Oviston covers an area of approximately 16 000ha and stretches from the dam wall in the west, to the Bethulie railroad bridge in the east. Lake Gariep, which spans the borders of the Free State and the Eastern Cape, lies approximately two hours south of Bloemfontein. The dam is more than 100km long and 15km wide with a surface area of about 360km² and a storage capacity of 5 673 8mil m³. The dam wall is 914m long and 88m high. As Oviston Nature Reserve forms part of the Karoo, it can get extremely hot during the day, followed by plummeting temperatures at night.