Move over Route 62 — Route 26 is more than a pretty face

Route 26

This is one route you'll hear next to noth­ing about. And given the num­ber of potholes on the road, it isn't entirely sur­pris­ing. But fore­warned is fore­armed, and the route is no less beau­ti­ful for the gap­ing holes.

Aside from the advice that an off-road vehicle might be a good idea, although not essen­tial as we man­aged in a sedan give-or-take a couple of rather big bumps, this route starts just out­side Rouxville in the Free State, and hugs the Lesotho bor­der all the way up to Villiers just south of Qalabotjiha, where it joins the N3.

We trav­elled Route 26, which is also part of the not much pub­li­cised Maloti Route* (this isn't a mis­spelling, des­pite its obvi­ous con­nec­tion to the Maluti Mountains) all the way to Fouriesburg, where we then turned onto the R711 to Clarens. The drive winds through and past the towns of  Zastron, Vanstadensrus, Wepener, Hobhouse, Ladybrand, Clocolan, and Ficksburg – gor­geous towns of the Eastern Free State that are a joy to explore in your own time. Whilst we ended up tak­ing the bet­ter part of eight hours to get from Rouxville to Clarens, you can do it faster.

Photographs: Left — Fields of Cosmos / Right — Scene from Zastron

To describe this part of the coun­try as beau­ti­ful doesn't do it justice. The vividly blue skies accom­pan­ied by unin­ter­rup­ted, undu­lat­ing hills and wide open fields the col­our of chaffed wheat, the hori­zon inter­mit­tently dot­ted with wind­pumps, is strangely sat­is­fy­ing it is so grace­fully pleasing.

Our time on the route was par­tic­u­larly pretty as ver­it­able fields of cos­mos had erup­ted as a res­ult of a fair amount of rain in the Free State. Wherever you looked these little pink, white and purple flowers were test­a­ment to nature's sur­repti­tious power to con­quer the land­scape, no mat­ter man's inten­tion. In par­tic­u­lar it flour­ished in the spaces between and on the cir­cum­fer­ence of farm­ers' fields, and in the dis­tance res­ul­ted in pretty patch­work like quilts of colour.

Photographs — Taken in Zastron

Zastron was a wel­come sur­prise. It's a very pretty vil­lage set at the foot of the Aasvoëlberg vir­tu­ally on the bor­der with Lesotho, which means many of the people liv­ing here com­mute on a daily basis, and per­haps explains the 'flour­ish­ing' town — there were no fewer than three banks in evid­ence (after explor­ing a num­ber of Free State towns one begins to rank them accord­ing to the num­ber of banks that have taken up res­id­ence, to give one an idea of the town's status).

The moun­tains in the near dis­tance, the pretty houses, the sand­stone hills into which the town is tucked, and the odd B&B, make Zastron a def­in­ite stop­over pos­sib­il­ity. The Eye of Zastron, a nine  metre wide hole in the sand­stone ridge over­look­ing town, is one of a num­ber of out­door activ­it­ies that have made the town pop­u­lar. It helps that it, like Rouxville, is also on the more prom­in­ent N6 route, mak­ing it accessible.

Photographs taken in Wepener — Left: NG Kerk, Centre: Gereformeerde Kerk, Right: Wepener Town Hall

Wepener, due north of Zastron, is a smal­ler town with an impress­ive sand­stone church and town hall, although parts of this lovely build­ing had obvi­ously suffered fire dam­age and were yet to be repaired – a sad sight. The town claims to have the finest beef and mut­ton and serves essen­tially as a farm­ing com­munity dorp. If you want to stay here, the ori­ginal house of Lord Fraser (his father star­ted Frasers Limited in Lesotho and he was involved in the devel­op­ment of Johannesburg) lies in the town, gor­geously ren­ov­ated as a guest house.

We drove past, rather than through, Hobhouse and Ladybrand and pressed on to Ficksburg, stop­ping just out­side the little town of Clocolan at The Cabin, a pretty farm stall that served as some­thing of a water­ing hole, given that noth­ing remotely sim­ilar is avail­able on the route up until now (other than an obvi­ously vacant 'padkaf­fee' out­side Wepener). Sleepy hol­low Clocolan might be, but The Cabin was humming.

Photographs: Scenes from Ficksburg

The farm stall and deli is jam packed with homemade products, hand­made gifts, décor items and func­tional art pieces that are made from loc­ally sourced mater­i­als, so expect to find pieces made from rus­ted wire, recycled wood, glass and sand­stone. Their break­fasts are fam­ous, and their hot chocol­ate, served in enorm­ous mugs, is first rate. There is a large play area for chil­dren on the lawn, they accept credit and debit cards, and offer accom­mod­a­tion if you need it.

Ficksburg is gor­geous. It hugs the Imperani Mountain and lies on the banks of the Caledon River, the set­ting alone a reason to live here. Famous for its annual November cherry fest­ival and asparagus and decidu­ous fruit crops, the com­munity is pretty large and by all accounts cos­mo­pol­itan, whilst sand­stone build­ings, homes and churches jostle with informal traders and more mod­ern build­ings. Near the grain elev­at­ors on the north end of town vis­it­ors can goggle at steam trains on view.

Photographs: Scenes from Fouriesburg

Fouriesburg has that 'stay here for a week­end and get to unwind and chill' feel­ing. It's not far from Clarens and per­haps there is a spillover effect which accounts for my assump­tion that this is the haven of artists and out-of-towners where a smat­ter­ing of cof­fee shops, a num­ber of accom­mod­a­tion options, and Jenlee's Country Shop, on the Lesotho bor­der post side, across from town, weave a tale of week­end stays and sat­is­fied vis­it­ors. Properties here haven't reached the far­cical pro­por­tions of those for sale in Clarens, and whilst the town is still to reach its full poten­tial, its won­der­ful to find a less-commercialised escape.

It was a day's drive filled with dreamy land­scapes, effort­less photo moments, fields of cos­mos and pretty little towns that provided hours of explor­at­ory poten­tial. A route well worth tak­ing, is the R26.

*The Maloti Drakensberg Route spans the moun­tain­ous bor­der between South Africa and Lesotho, incor­por­at­ing some of the most beau­ti­ful, unspoilt and scenic parts of the Eastern Cape, Eastern Free State and the Drakensberg. For more www.malotiroute.co.za

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