Habitat

Habitat types:

South Africa has seven major terrestrial biomes, or habitat types - broad ecological life zones with distinct environmental conditions and related sets of plant and animal life.
In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush and well watered, a stranger to frost. The southern coast, part of which is known as the Garden Route, is rather less tropical but also green, as is the Cape of Good Hope - the latter especially in winter.

This south-western corner of the country has a Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and hot, dry summers. Its most famous climatic characteristic is its wind, which blows intermittently virtually all year round, either from the south-east or the north-west.

The eastern section of the Karoo does not extend as far north as the western part, giving way to the flat landscape of the Free State, which though still semi-arid receives somewhat more rain.

North of the Vaal River, the Highveld is better watered, and saved by its altitude (Johannesburg lies at 1 740m; its average annual rainfall is 760mm) from subtropical extremes of heat. Winters are cold, though snow is rare.

Further north and to the east, especially where a drop in altitude beyond the escarpment gives the Lowveld its name, temperatures rise: the Tropic of Capricorn slices through the extreme north. This is also where one finds the typical South African Bushveld of wildlife fame.

Those looking for an opportunity to ski in winter head for the high Drakensberg mountains that form South Africa's eastern escarpment, but the coldest place in the country is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, with midwinter temperatures as low as -15ºC.

The deep interior provides the hottest temperatures: in 1948 the mercury hit 51.7ºC in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.