One World Heritage site of amazing interest is the Vredefort Dome, situated in the Free State, South Africa approximately 100 km south west of Johannesburg. The Vredefort Dome is an astrobleme (a meteorite impact structure). It is the largest in the world and came about approximately 2 billion years ago when a meteorite 10 km in diameter impacted with the earth resulting in the crater now known as the Vredefort Dome and due to its geological importance was named as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2005. The original crater was between 250 and 360 km in diameter, but it has suffered a great deal of erosion and it now covers an area of about 190 km and encompasses the towns of Vredefort and Parys.
The Vredefort Dome conservancy was formed by a number of people who own land in the area of the crater resulting in this area becoming one of the Free State’s most important tourist adventure areas with accommodation available in the area of both Vredefort and Parys. Accomodation is varied and caters for all needs.
Activities in the area include hiking, rock climbing , white water rafting and canoeing and cycling.
Situated in the center of the crater basin and well worth a visit is the Kommandonek Game Reserve which is bordered by the beautiful Vaal River. A large selection of buck such as Waterbuck, Impala, Oryx and many other species, as well as Giraffe and Zebra can be viewed either from an open game vehicle or while hiking along the official trails and enjoying the lovely scenery.