Mountain stays: the high country of South Africa

The Berg is the biggest wall in Southern Africa, a basalt escarpment rising to over 3,000 metres along the Lesotho border, with a band of sandstone foothills below it where the stays are. The northern Berg around Bergville and Winterton looks up at the Amphitheatre; the central Berg at Cathkin and Champagne Castle; the southern Berg around Underberg and Himeville holds Sani Pass. Over the Free State side, Clarens sits in the Maluti sandstone with Golden Gate next door.

Autumn and spring are the walking seasons: clear, cool and dry. Winter is crisp with snow on the high ground. Summer is green, with afternoon thunderstorms that clear by evening.

The Cape mountains run in folded parallel lines: the Hottentots Holland and Jonkershoek above the Winelands, the Langeberg and the Riviersonderend above the Overberg and the Breede valley, the Swartberg between the Little and Great Karoo. Their kloofs hold the fynbos and the Cape leopard, their passes are among the finest drives in the country, and their foothill villages, Montagu, Barrydale, Greyton, Prince Albert, Tulbagh, are the stays.

Spring and autumn are the seasons; winter brings rain to the western ranges and snow to the Swartberg; summer is hot in the Karoo valleys and best walked early.

Three hours north of Cape Town the Cederberg is sandstone weathered into arches, cracks and towers, rock art in the overhangs, and a night sky dark enough for its own observatory. It is a wilderness area with a few farms and a mission village, Wupperthal, inside it, and the stays are farm cottages and campsites reached on gravel from Clanwilliam and Citrusdal.

Spring is the flower season and the best walking; autumn is clear and still; winter can bring snow to the peaks; summer is very hot, and the river pools are the point.

Where the highveld drops to the Lowveld, the escarpment is forest, waterfalls, trout dams and mist. Sabie, Graskop and Pilgrim's Rest sit on the Panorama Route above the Blyde River Canyon; Dullstroom is trout and fly-fishing country; further north Haenertsburg and Magoebaskloof are the Limpopo version, with the Woodbush forest and cherry blossom in spring. Hazyview is the last stop before the Kruger gates and the base for both.

Every season works: winter is dry and clear with cold nights, summer is green and misty, and the waterfalls are fullest after the summer rains.

In the Karoo the mountains stand alone: the Sneeuberg above Nieu-Bethesda and Graaff-Reinet, with the Valley of Desolation in Camdeboo National Park; the Roggeveld escarpment at Sutherland, the coldest town in the country and the site of its big telescopes. The stays are Victorian villages and sheep farms, and the nights are the reason to come.