Sweet thorn (Acacia karoo)- the most prolific tree in South Africa - spreads like a messenger across the vast spaces of South Africa's central province - the Free State.

Here, lush red grass (Themeda trianga) carpets the plains, climbs the hillocks along with its shy brother, the wild olive (Olea africana) and the teasing hindrance of the aptly-named wag-'n-bietjie-bos ["wait-a-while-bush" (Ziziphus mucronata)], with its two-way thorns that impede fast walking, and the karee (Rhuz lancea).

But speed is the last thing on your mind in this languid province, where unique bird species such as the bearded vulture hiding in the mountainous Maluti range near the Golden Gate Highlands National Park comprise the last grouping of these magnificent "lammergeiers" in South Africa.

Mountainous, green and lush in the east, dry and torrid-like in the west, golden with maize and mining in the north and largely undiscovered hinterland in the south - that's the Free State, where the capitol city is rather intriguingly nicknamed "the City of Roses".

Bloemfontein, today a modern, cosmopolitan city with initiative thriving alongside a mixed bag of Anglo-Boer culture, offers the visitor the only street in SA (named after President Brand and containing the Old Presidency, Parliament and the Appeal Court) that has been declared a national monument.

Scarcely a block away from President Brand Street is the high-tech Sand du Plessis Theatre, which in turn lies in the shadow of the Loch Logan Waterfront Development and the Free State Stadium.

Another "only" for Bloemfontein is the Naval Hill Franklin Nature Reserve, smack in the middle of the city, from where the visitor can view Hoffman Square, the Tweetoring Kerk and the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in the distance. Backpackers are offered shelter, along with trendy hotel-goers and B&B visitors in a city geared to accommodate.