Affordable Cederberg weekends

My slight obsession with Bushmen Rock Art and the constant search for it on trips to the Western Cape Mountains, resulted in the necessity to find affordable weekend accommodation near Clanwilliam, which is about 2 and a half hours north of Cape Town on the N7. Not interested in residing in the town, and wanting somewhere quieter, I managed to locate two wonderful spots on the border of the Cederberg Wilderness Area in the Boskloof Valley Continued

Cederberg Photographs

Our photoographs today were taken in the Cederberg in the Olifants River Valley of the Western Cape. The Cederberg is a wilderness area dominated by a craggy mountain range and a nature reserve that stretches from the Middelberg Pass at Citrusdal to just north of the Pakhuis Pass at Clanwilliam – over 70,000 hectares of spectacular, rugged terrain – roughly two to three hours’ drive from Cape Town … Continued

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 … Continued

The Cederberg

The Cederberg

Many people remember being a teenager with a fond, misty, sentimental look on their face. I for one am lucky to crack a grimace at some of the downright outrageous things I got up to during those years. Like the time my friends and I decided to go camping in the Cederberg.

At the end of high-school, instead of heading to Plettenberg Bay, the age-old venue for school-leaving parties, we thought beat the commercial crowds and head straight to the heart of the wilderness to live rough, drink hard and come back laughing at the herds who had frittered away their first taste of post-school freedom in a lame little holiday town.

As it turns out, the joke was kinda on us. Certain things are high on the list of priorities. Making sure that all your tent poles are packed is not one of them.Tell this to a teenager and they’ll scoff. As it turns out you can’t pitch a tent with two poles missing, as we found out that weekend. Which left us sleeping out in the open. This was great the first night, but when it started raining on the second, tempers started to flair. After much swearing and moaning, we miraculously found a cave for shelter. In fact, my most beautiful memory of the Cederberg is falling asleep in that cave, listening to a waterfall cascading nearby and waking up with nature in all her awesome splendour, where the silence is so pure you can hear it, feel it and see it. Which didn’t prevent me from getting a nasty bout of flu from sleeping the rain. Continued