Olifants River Meander

Citrusdal

The Olifant’s River meanders through the val­ley bring­ing life to the sur­round­ing area. Without the water this beau­ti­ful world of green, the heavy fra­grance of the cit­rus groves that greet you as you drive along, the proud farm­ing com­munity with the renowned Groen Vallei wines would cease to exist.

There are many beau­ti­ful vil­lages hid­den away, that offer warm hos­pit­al­ity to vis­it­ors. You can travel around the region for days and days and never get bored.

The majestic Cederberg moun­tain range towers over Citrusdal; the hub of the cit­rus grow­ing industry in South Africa. Only two hours drive from Cape Town ... this town seems worlds apart with its old-world charm and val­ues. Citrusdal is unique in that it is sur­roun­ded by moun­tains; the Koue Bokkeveld, Swartberg and Cederberg form a ring around the town with its far stretch­ing orch­ards that become a won­der world when the orange trees are heav­ily laden with ripe oranges.

Rock Art

Driving along the farm roads at this time of year is a sur­real exper­i­ence, no mat­ter where you look, you are sur­roun­ded by the heavy smell and the bright orange that make the trees look like they are hung with Christmas dec­or­a­tions. The val­ley pro­duce high-quality honey, rooibos tea and excel­lent wines, but the oranges are the real treat. By the time you get to your des­tin­a­tion at the Hot Springs Resort you are enchanted and ready to for­get about work, stress and city life.

For those work­ahol­ics who can­not tear them­selves away, there are numer­ous estab­lish­ments offer­ing both catered and self-catering, basic and lux­uri­ous accom­mod­a­tion in Citrusdal that will cater to your every need. For the more ener­getic; the Cederberg hik­ing trails beckon and the Observatory on Dwarsrivier farm is worth a visit.

Cederberg

The ham­let of Clanwilliam beck­ons to be explored. This is one of the ten old­est towns in South Africa, where you can walk trough the museum that was ori­gin­ally the jail­house and see San arte­facts. The  vil­lage is fam­ous for the local industry; veld­skoene [loosely trans­lated as leather shoes], this is a unique type of hard­wear­ing raw leather shoes that are hand­made and worn by farmers.

Clanwillian is situ­ated on the Olifant’s River Dam; an 18 km long dam that feeds a huge part of the region and in a year with good rain­fall it is truly an awe­some spec­tacle to see all the sluice gates open and feel the vibra­tion as the water thun­ders over the dam wall.

Useful Links
For more in depth inform­a­tion about the area please visit:
Olifants River Valley
Olifants River Valley Wine Route
Olifants River Valley Accommodation
Western Cape Accommodation

Also See:
An inter­est­ing post about the wild flowers in the region is avail­able at the Velvet Escape Blog at A Kaleidescope of Colour. The author aptly describes his exper­i­ence of the phe­nomenon of the Cape Flower Route in Spring.