Valley of Desolation in Camdeboo National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Not so desolate after all

Camdeboo National Park’s name comes from a word that’s tricky for non-Khoekhoe speakers to say (though it’s fun to try). !Xamdeboo, with ‘!’ pronounced as a click consonant, means ‘green valley.’ In sharp contrast, the park’s signature feature – this 400-foot-tall mass of pillarlike diabase – is named the Valley of Desolation. A paved road leads park visitors to this stark stone sight, also a great place for surveying the Karoo scrubland where kudu, eland, and even the occasional Cape mountain zebra roam.