Geography of South Africa ore from the interior. South Africa is largely a dry country, with most of its western regions being semi-desert. The rainfall increases in the east, (the Highveld, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Midlands), and falls primarily in summer. The narrow southern coastal strip receives all-year rainfall in the east (the Garden Route), and winter rainfall in the west (on the Cape Peninsula and its surrounds). The summers are warm to hot, while the winter temperatures can vary, depending on locality from bitterly cold to cool. Thus the Karoo, which occupies a large part of the western Central Plateau, has a climate
Karoo Supergroup of basaltic lava over the Clarens desert, covering nearly the whole of Southern Africa and other portions of Gondwana.The pile of lava that accumulated over the course of several eruptions was more than 1600 m thick, especially in the east (in present-day Lesotho). This massive lava outpouring brought the Karoo sedimention to an abrupt end. The name Drakensberg group is derived from the fact that this layer forms the uppermost 1400 m of the Great Escarpment on the international border between Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal, often referred to as "the" Drakensberg (although technically the "Drakensberg" refers to the entire 1000 km