Karoo Traveller: Route 62 – Passport to the Little Karoo
The longest wine route in the world has a lot more to offer tourists than Ostriches, Caves, award winning Port and estate brandy from Boplaas in Calitzdorp. Route 62 exhibits some of the most spectacular scenery in South Africa around Meringspoort, and within a 100 km radius from an Oudtshoorn base.
The world famous Garden Route is a good combination with this gateway to heaven in the Little Karoo. After visiting the lakes around Knysna and Tsitsikamma forests, a great overnight stop is the peaceful Schoemans Kloof valley, 10 km from the Cango Caves. A great variety of travel combinations are possible using Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Oudtshoorn as a base.
Visiting South Africa without a Garden route and Route 62 excursion is incomplete, although being a diverse country with many travel options. More than one visit is required to appreciate the true beauty of South Africa.
Meirings Poort remains one of the most romantically lovely of all road passes in Southern Africa with beautiful red sandstone formations and diverse botany. This hidden Cinderella joins the dry semi dessert area of the Central Karoo with the diverse Little Karoo. Wild Geranium found around Europe and America has its origin in Meirings Poort.
Animals vary from tiny field mice to the shy and rarely seen Cape mountain leopard, while kudu, grysbok, baboon and jackal run freely in the field and readily seen on farm roads.
The Swartberg circular route includes Oudtshoorn, Meirings Poort, De Rust, Klaarstroom, Prince Albert, Swartberg Pass, Gamkas Kloof(The Hell) and Rust & Vreugde Waterfall on the Oude Muragie Route.
Plan sufficient time to include this great gift of nature in your Cape Town and Garden Route trip, or it will indeed be disappointing not to see everything on offer. The Western and Eastern Cape can be assimilated to different sides of a coin that belongs in the same wallet. Similarly it is essential to include all of it on your travel itineraries. Setting 10 - 14 days aside to take in the best of Cape Town, Garden Route and Route 62 will not be wasted at all, and comparable to the best package on offer in the world. The difference is how people experience it and the exact reason for exclusive travel design.
Oudtshoorn may well have been established due to the booming ostrich feather industry in the early 1900’s but is a far cry from being limited to ostrich farming. Within a 100km radius all these beautiful scenery will captivate souls for days on end, a nature lover’s dream indeed! The Cango Caves is an enormous complex of caves where strange and wonderful shapes are formed by stalactites and stalagmites stretching deep into the Swartberg Mountains.
This is a great way to start your first day in the area after taking in the wonderful sights of the Garden Route. Two or three days in the area will not be wasted before continuing via Route 62 to Cape Town. The more adventurous can ride an ostrich while shopaholics will have a choice of ostrich leather products to die for! A meal at Jemimas will certainly exceed expectations of distinguished palates – Home cooked local fare is equally enticing while enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and great star-lit skies of Schoemans Kloof.
Swartberg nature reserve includes the pass and entry to the hidden valley of Gamkas Kloof, or The Hell as it is better known. The journey into Gamkas Kloof takes at least two hours down the windy and spectacular road, definitely not for the faint hearted. Swartberg Pass is without doubt one of the most sensational passes in Africa to be explored. This is one of the engineering marvels of Thomas Bain with dry walling in place after 118 years! Reserve at least 8 - 12 hours to do justice to this spectacular marvel of nature, including the mysterious Gamkas Kloof where civilization slowly caught up with a hidden world in the sixties. Bushmen paintings are abundant in the area with local resident experts living in the Prince Albert district.
Rietfontein Ostrich palace is the oldest working farm in close proximity to Calitzdorp and well worth a stop to ingest architectural wonders of the early twentieth century. The red stone hills in the vicinity are spectacular and well worth exploring before entering the Port capital of South Africa. There are quite a few wines on offer at the leading cellars and brandy has been distilled an exported since 1880. This town is also the area where the most abundant numbers of pale chanting goshawks are to be found. Naturally, without making special mention, the whole of the Cape Karoo (Little Karoo) and Garden route is rich in photographic material worth capturing.
Seven Weeks Poort is another beautifully coloured sandstone gorge linking the Central and Little Karoo worth exploring en route to Ladismith. Prometheus must have passed this way trough the Swartberg and split the range apart with a breath of fire. Glowing coals of red, orange and yellow forms towering cliffs topped with dark-green algae growth. It is the ideal place to walk or cycle without taxing physical limits associated with Swartberg Pass excursions. Towerkop´s majestic peak was split in two by an angry witch who struck the peak with her wand because it obstructed her passage over the mountain, as rumour goes! Ladismith and the surrounding vicinity are best explored outdoors while being one with nature.
Night skies, as in the rest of the Karoo expanse, is simply breath taking.
Barrydale is a quaint little village in close proximity to Cape Town and the N1 route linking Cape Town to the Eastern Cape. Stopping there for a visit to craft shops, Mud art gallery browsing, or lunching at Clarke of the Karoo is recommended. A final stop on the trek back to Cape Town has to be Mimosa Lodge in Montagu whose sumptuous food and art deco furniture creates visions of the roaring fifties.
To conclude it should be noted that this is a sample of many travel options & varieties down this wonderful valley hemmed in by the Swartberg Mountain range and the coastal belt. for more information on private and exclusive travel options.
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