Gariep Dam offers camping set against the dramatic backdrop of South Africa's largest man-made water body, situated on the Orange River on the border of the Free State, Northern Cape, and Eastern Cape provinces.

The dam itself, completed in the early 1970s, has a surface area of over 36,000 hectares and stretches roughly 80 km upstream. Two main camping options exist in the area.

The Gariep Dam Nature Reserve, on the northern and eastern shoreline off the R701, provides a camping area amid classic dry Karoo landscape of rocky kopjes, grassy plains, and scattered shrubs.

The award-winning Forever Gariep Resort, located just off the N1 about 180 km south of Bloemfontein, is a larger, more developed facility. Both options place campers within reach of water sports, fishing, boating, and birding on the dam.