about us

Porcupine Rest Camp is owned and run by Joy Nel and her adventure and culture guide partner, Francois Roverch. Joy spent many years travelling southern Africa’s wilderness areas and fell in love with the African bush. She left the chaos of city life to follow her dream: to establish a spot for campers where you don’t need to share overcrowded ablutions or a run-of-the mill patch of lawn; a place where people could enjoy nature and all that it offers. Francois is a nature lover who grew up at the foot of Table Mountain and spent much of his time exploring it. A keen camper from an early age, he worked as a full-time river guide before guiding countless visitors on various other adventure activities, such as sand boarding, quad-biking and hiking trips. Porcupine Rest Camp is an incredible new adventure for Francois, and falling in love with Joy and the Karoo has been an added blessing.

At Porcupine Rest Camp, when you book a site, it is yours exclusively. No sharing with strangers. Instead, you’ll have the peace and privacy that city life often denies you and you can spend quality time with your friends and family. We are biker- and cyclist-friendly (see our camp gear packages) and are a popular stop-over for groups doing road trips in the area. We take walk-ins too and even for those who can't stay the night, The Overlander Bush Pub is a welcome break and little oasis in our Karoo valley.  

In keeping with Porcupine’s ideal of treading lightly through nature, the rustic but comfortable camp sites are designed to blend in with their natural setting and use mainly local materials and on-site resources. Deadwood and invasive flora is used to stoke the hot-water donkey boilers, and The Overlander runs solely on solar energy.

Joy and Francois also believe in putting something back, so most of the items available for purchase – meat, ice, bread, homemade goodies and crafts – are locally sourced and support local small businesses and the Vleiland and Karoo community.