Just got back from our weekend in the Klein Karoo! Three days have never seemed so long (in the best possible sense of course). We began our drive a bit late on Thursday evening, due to some hiccups in renting our car, but we were able to make it into Robertson at about 9 pm. Since we were driving in almost complete darkness, the only sense of scenery that we were able to get from the drive was the black silhouettes of the surrounding mountains. Robertson is the first main town along Route 62, but we underestimated how small these towns really are. Although Robertson is claimed as one of the “largest” of the Route 62 towns, the main street shops probably only occupy one or two blocks of the downtown. Our hostel was a quaint country home nestled amongst the quiet homes of Robertson; we were lucky to have our own room all to ourselves where we could relax a bit. The next morning we began our drive over to Ladismith by taking a more scenic (although the entire drive looked like something from a storybook) route off of R62 and through the third oldest white settlement in South Africa, Swellendam. Before reaching this town, we stopped at a tiny cheese making farm where we were able to do a bit of wine and cheese tasting. The rain cleared away for us and left beautiful blue skies as a backdrop to the emerald hills of the Langeberg Mountains. Moving on to Swellendam, we pulled over to stop at a “faerie sanctuary” for a random roadside attraction. This sanctuary consisted of a garden that was completely covered in faeries, toadstools, gnomes and fairy dust. We weren’t sure of the two owners’ stance on faeries existing…but they seemed pretty convinced. The whole place was a bit overdone, but it had a nice message about peace and happiness. We drove onwards through some of the tiniest towns imaginable, where the only homes were the ones lining the highway. We rejoined Route 62 at Barrydale, where we stopped at the world famous Ronnie’s Sex Shop. While Ronnie’s is actually a pub, it was a quirky place to stop in an otherwise empty desert. The story goes that Ronnie was making a farm stall and his friends played a prank on him by painting “Ronnie’s Sex Shop” across the building. He never fixed it, so they suggested he just turn it into a pub and it is now a huge hit amongst locals and, of course, tourists. All of the walls are covered in writing, left by fellow travelers on their way along R62, and above the bar is a giant collection of past traveler’s bras. The whole place has the vibe of the weird roadside attractions that you see in the states, except that it’s in SA. We found a couple of blank spots on the walls and made sure to leave our own marks before driving on to our accommodation for the night. Friday night we spent the night in a farm cottage off the side of R62. Being several km off of the highway, we were essentially alone with nature in the Little Karoo. If I haven’t mentioned it already, the Klein “Little” Karoo is the name of the semi-arid environment that we spent most of our weekend in. I’ve always been mesmerized by stars and their ability to seem so close but simultaneously millions of miles away. The LK night sky was spectacular; because there weren’t any lights around us, the black desert sky was glittered with stars. I don’t think I have ever seen so many stars in my life (pretty sure we could even see the Milky Way J) and it was incredible to just get lost in the vastness of it all.
We drove to a natural hot springs location called Wermwatersburg Spa for dinner because of our desperate need for warmth. My friend, Sara, and I were far too freezing to get into the hot springs, but our two other friends went right in –completely insane –. Once again, this “spa”, was really a country camping spot that had created nice pools filled with natural mineral water from the springs, but it was nice to see other people around.
The next morning we began our drive out to the ostrich capital of the world, Oudtshoorn. First, we drove through a river pass that was carved out of brilliant red rock. The giant rock faces and sparse greenery reminded me a bit of Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Throughout the entire trip it felt like we were somewhere besides South Africa; whether it was driving through vineyards, or gazing up at snow capped mountains, I always was reminded of another, more familiar, place, rather than the place where we really are. Along the way we interrupted a couple troops of baboons that had been casually hanging out in the middle of the road. Once through the pass, we reached the port capital of South Africa, Calitzdorp. We stopped by one of the few, if not only, negative carbon footprint wineries in South Africa, named Boplaas. They have made several award winning ports, so we made sure to give them a try while we were there. Afterwards, we made quickly for Oudtshoorn so that we could get to the Cango Wildlife Park before late afternoon.
The Cango Wildlife Park is a bit zoo-like at times, but the best part of it is the encounters that you can have with the wild cats. For a donation, I was able to enter the adult cheetah enclosure and actually PET a cheetah! I don’t think I had ever seen a live cheetah before then, let alone get close enough to touch one, so I was in complete shock when I was able to stroke its back and hear it purr. YES, cheetahs purr!! It was definitely one of the craziest, most surreal, experiences I’ve ever had. Once we left the park we checked in at our hostel, where we got our own room once again :D, and headed to Buffelsdrift Wildlife Reserve for dinner. This private game park has an awesome restaurant situated right on the waterhole where you can observe wildlife coming to drink at dusk. Being in the ostrich capital of the world, I decided to have a salad topped with ostrich carpaccio. Ostrich is a weird meat to eat…although it’s a bird, when you’re eating it, it’s much more like beef than anything else. That being said, it was tasty! One of my friends, Marina, had the ostrich fillet, which was melt in your mouth fantastic, while my two other friends had kudu and springbok burgers (YUM). One thing I can say about South Africa is that it really hasn’t disappointed in the food area.
Today, Sunday, we went to the Cango Caves! These caves are awesome and filled with tons of stalactites/stalagmites. We decided to take the adventure tour so we had to do some crawling and climbing through tunnels that were sometimes less than 2 feet high! I loved the whole thing, and was actually disappointed when it ended, despite being a bit worried about claustrophobia before starting the tour. After the caves, we had intended on driving across the Swartberg Pass (listed as one of the best drives you can do in South Africa), but unfortunately, because of the heavy rainfall, and thus heavy snow fall, the pass was closed. So, we regrouped and decided to just drive all the way back to Cape Town today, rather than spending more at another night’s accommodation.
This was a really long post…but I had to make sure I covered all of the main bases of our weekend! I’ll be putting pictures up soon, so check back for a new link within the week.
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