STUPID o'clock and here I am under a pre-dawn Milky Way sky outside the small town of Oudtshoorn in South Africa waiting for some furry little creatures to pop out of a burrow. "Holiday" and "5am" are not really words that go well together in my book. "Breakfast in bed" and "private terrace with Jacuzzi"? Well, now you're talking.

Wrapped up in a fleece and dreaming of bacon and eggs, I'm w aiting for dawn to break on a "meerkat safari". Ever since a certain advert burst on to our TV screens featuring your everyday talking meerkat, interest in the furry animals has rocketed.

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I admit, I'm as smitten as anyone.

My guide is Grant McIlrath, known as "The Meerkat Man", who runs a wildlife project here in the Western Cape. He is passionate about the animals. "I don't want people to arrive, take a picture, then head off, " he tells me as our group walks quietly to a burrow.

"I want them to come away with a real understanding and know more about the conservation issues."

With the sun starting to come up over the Swartberg Mountains, he makes clicking noises which are reassuring to the meerkats but do sound as if they have come from a Monty Python-esque Ministry of Daft Noises. Then we wait and wait.

Eventually, a little bundle of fur pops out of the ground, followed by the rest of the family. They survey the scene, squeaking and have a scratch before standing on their back legs to warm up. They are seemingly unfazed by the tourists w atching, mesmerised, 15ft away.

Sufficiently warm, they scamper off looking for food. Their human followers keep a respectful distance, Grant clicking away. There's always at least one meerkat on its hind legs looking out for predators.

It is hard to tear myself away but there's far more to this region.

Oudtshoorn, some 250 miles east of Cape Town, is a pleasant, sleepy town of 85,000 people that makes its money from tourism and ostrich farming. I use it as a base to explore the area.

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In 19th-century Europe, any lady worth her petticoat sported an Oudtshoorn ostrich feather in her hat. I tour the Cango Ostrich Show Farm, 10 miles out of town, where you can learn about these seemingly perpetually grumpy birds and have a ride too if you're under 12st (I'm just the wrong side, luckily). The bird's lean meat appears on many menus here.

BACK in town Jemima's, on Baron van Reede Street, proves a lovely, laid-back restaurant. I am a bit ostriched-out, so opt for delicious duck and mushroom risotto, then bread and butter pudding.

The town sits in the shadow of the Outeniqua Mountains, often topped with meringue-like clouds.

I do some exploring, driving over them to George one day, just an hour away and along the start of the Garden Route.

Heading north the next morning I arrive at the semi-desert landscapes of Klein Karoo. Here irrigation windmills cast shadows over the scrub. Via the spectacular but hairy Swartberg Pass I reach the pretty village of Prince Albert, dating from 1762. To head back to Cape Town, bypass the quicker but rather dull N2 motorway in favour of the more leisurely Route 62, which must rank as one of the world's great unknown drives.

I cross high plateaux, down into vineyard-laced valleys, stop at quirky cafés such as Ronnie's Sex Shop and happen on such neat market towns as Calitzdorp, Montagu and Barrydale. The area is getting a deserved reputation as a food and wine-lover's paradise as chefs make use of the abundant produce.

I stop outside Robertson at one of the gloriously remote Tierhoek Cottages belonging to Bruce and Alison Gilson, to be woken next morning by hundreds of weaver birds outside my window. The most natural alarm clock.

As I sit on the balcony eating from the breakfast picnic basket, I reflect that, as with the meerkats, it often pays to think small in South Africa for the magical experiences.

GETTING THERE:
Virgin Holidays (0844 557 3859/ virginholidays.co.uk) offers a seven-night fly-drive in South Africa from £819pp (two sharing).
Price includes return flights from Heathrow to Cape Town and seven days' car hire.
Grant McIlrath (dialling from the UK: 0027 82 413 6895/meerkatmagic.com) offers four-hour meerkat safaris from £30pp.
Tierhoek Cottages (23 626 1191/ tierhoekcottages.co.za) offers self-catering cottages from £44 per night (two sharing).
De Zeekoe Guest Farm (44 272 6721/dezeekoe.co.za) on Route 62, offers doubles from £80 per night (two sharing), B&B.
Burga's B&B (44 279 2723/ burgasbb.de) in the Klein Karoo offers doubles from £42 per night (two sharing), B&B.
South African Tourism: 0870 155 0044/southafrica.net