Where to Lunch in De Rust, and Why it's Worth a Visit

Lunch in De Rust

We don't mean to stop in De Rust. We're on the N12 that heads off the N1 close to the Karoo National Park en route to Ladismith, our inten­ded des­tin­a­tion, and have just come through the incred­ible Meiringspoort, when De Rust appears out of nowhere.

The main road through town is littered with col­our­ful res­taur­ants, cof­fee shops and the odd boutique. The place is hot and hum­ming. And a big board informs us that De Rust has won 'dorp van die jaar' and claims to be the best town in the Karoo.

Besides, we're hot and hungry. And with all the jolly jost­ling for atten­tion that each of the estab­lish­ments makes in a bid to get you to stop at their res­taur­ant (they're rather col­our­ful), the town deserves exploration.

The towns we've passed through, the heat of the Karoo and the incred­ible tower­ing sand­stone cliffs of Meiringspoort have all reminded me of author Ettienne van Heerden's The Long Silence of Mario Salviati (if there's one book that to me epi­tom­ises the Karoo, then it's this one, although the ori­ginal, is of course, Die Swye van Mario Salviati). Continued

I ♥ Beaufort West Because ...

I ♥ Beaufort West

Hi, I’m Elsolique from Old House Guesthouse in Beaufort West.

Beaufort West IS BEST KNOWN FOR its unique Karoo hospitality.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the Chris Barnard Museum; Chris Barnard was the fam­ous heart sur­geon who per­formed the worlds first heart transplant.

THE BEST Karoo PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT the Karoo National Park.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT our beau­ti­ful pear trees on the Main Road.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S GOOD, I LIKE TO be out­side in the fresh Karoo air.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S BAD, I LIKE TO visit friends.

I THINK THE BEST TIME OF YEAR TO VISIT IS in the winter, BECAUSE our sum­mers have extreme heat. Continued

5 great things to do when in Graaff-Reinet

Reinet House

Stop your car on the out­skirts of town on the Camdeboo Mountain Drive and below you will lie the cir­cu­lar shape of Graaff-Reinet, held within a gen­er­ous bend of the Sundays River closest to you, and the moun­tains of the Sneeuberg in the back­ground. It's a glor­i­ous set­ting, to say the least.

Depending upon the time of year that you go, it will either be mer­ci­lessly hot (at least 40 degrees in the shade if the last couple of sum­mers are any­thing to go by) or really cold (dur­ing winter).

Neither of which should act as a deterrent, for the town is not only beau­ti­ful, it is also pretty large as far as Karoo towns go, full of a rich his­tory (it's the fourth old­est town in the coun­try after Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Swellendam) and it has count­less places to visit and things to do. Continued

Graaff-Reinet, gem of the Karoo

Graaff-Reinet

Stargazing, like whisky, is an acquired taste. It takes patience, an appre­ci­ation of subtle nuances and enough time to fully become involved in either activ­ity. Stargazing while drink­ing whisky? Well, that might just be the path to travel enlightenment.

Graaff-Reinet, the Gem of the Karoo, offers some of the best star gaz­ing in the world with enough space and an atmo­sphere con­du­cive soak­ing up some of the radi­ant cos­mo­lo­gical won­ders that the Southern Hemisphere’s heav­ens have to offer. Continued

Cango Wildlife Ranch — the real deal for sheer cuteness

Cango Wildlife Ranch

Tired of always being temp­ted to click on emails and Facebook links of cute kit­tens, pos­sums, koalas and other cuddly things, I decided to get the need to look at tiny bundles of fur out of my sys­tem by going straight to the source. Sure, LOLcats and digital pic­tures of hedge­hogs are great, but noth­ing beats the real deal for sheer cute­ness. A visit to the Cango Wildlife Ranch was in order. The ranch offers vis­it­ors an extraordin­ary and rare oppor­tun­ity to inter­act with hand-reared chee­tahs and to play with Bengal tiger cubs. I knew I would be in furry paradise ...

For the super adven­tur­ous and fear­less the ranch also offers cage diving with cro­codiles or the chance to wrap your­self in a python, great mucho excuses for going to look at the kit­ties. 3km from the charm­ing Karoo town of Oudtshoorn makes for a long-ish jour­ney from Cape Town, but it’s well worth the trip. Just make sure you take lots of pho­to­graphs ... Continued

Klein Karoo wine route – spit or swallow?

Karoo Wine Route

This is dry coun­try. Days of con­tinu­ous rain, as is so often the case in Cape Town dur­ing winter, don't hap­pen here. You won't find traffic jams, much crime, or town­house com­plexes either. In short, the Klein Karoo, or Little Karoo, is  heaven, an arid oasis of open spaces, neigh­bour­li­ness, wind pumps and the odd don­key cart...

The bonus is that it's also the closest part of the Karoo to Cape Town (most south­erly). It changes the land­scape just after Robertson and includes the little towns of Montagu, Barrydale, Ladismith, Calitzdorp, Oudtshoorn and De Rust, and then heads up in an ever-widening swathe just inland of the west coast where it meets Namibia at Kuboes. Continued

Traversing the Tradouw

Tradouw Pass

If you are after a simply beau­ti­ful drive through rugged ter­rain then make sure you take the 14 kilo­metre long Tradouw Pass between Barrydale and Swellendam. It is so craggy and ardu­ous that the mind boggles as to just how the pass ori­gin­ated.  To say that it is breath­tak­ing is doing it a dis­ser­vice, and we trav­elled it in the pour­ing rain!

All I can say is that the man who designed it is a genius. Known amongst his con­tem­por­ar­ies as 'the man with the theodol­ite eye' (for those who don't know, a theodol­ite is an instru­ment to meas­ure hori­zontal and ver­tical angles) Thomas Bain, not to be con­fused with his father Andrew Geddes Bain who con­struc­ted eight passes includ­ing Bainskloof Pass, pulled off thir­teen such passes in the south­ern Cape dur­ing the 1800s and each of them is a mas­ter­piece. But this one in par­tic­u­lar deserves a travel for its beauty. Continued

Montagu's village market – fun filled Saturday mornings

Montagu Market

Heading off to explore the Montagu vil­lage mar­ket on a Saturday morn­ing to grab some break­fast is a stand­ard social affair for Montagu's res­id­ents, judging by the turn-out on a sunny morn­ing in winter. It's also a fun out­ing for vis­it­ors, and a great way to mingle with the townies, if that's your intention.

Everyone is bundled up in coats, scarves and gloves, but it looks as though the day will be fine as the first rays of sun hit the market's venue, Euvrard Park in Bath Street just across the way from the Tourism Information Bureau. There is a real sense of camaraderie as vis­it­ors and loc­als mingle around the foun­tain that forms the centre piece of the glade, filled with gor­geous old trees that in sum­mer serve as shade and in winter add oodles of char­ac­ter to the mar­ket. Continued

Aasvoëlkrans — more than a touch of whimsy in Montagu

Aasvoëlkrans B&B

Let me let you into a secret. Pretty Aasvoëlkrans is really worth your rand. To say that you are  spoilt for choice when it comes to accom­mod­a­tion in Montagu is an under­state­ment. There is so much to choose from that it can get a little con­fus­ing. But if you're after a little bit of lux­ury, with a huge dol­lop of con­trar­i­ness, indi­vidu­al­ity and per­son­al­ity, then this coun­try set­ting B&B is for you.

I have not been exposed to some­thing quite as ori­ginal as Aasvoëlkrans before. Set on an Arabian stud farm just out­side town — Church Street is a mere 10 minutes walk from here — the accom­mod­a­tion is a series of com­pletely indi­vidual and private garden rooms. Each has its own bed­room, en suite bath­room, bal­cony, and a couple their own kit­chenette ... Continued

Clarke of the Karoo

Clarke of the Karoo

It's pour­ing with rain, the first proper soak­ing Barrydale has had this sea­son, it's a Monday morn­ing around mid­day, and we're nigh on freez­ing. We later learn that snow lies on the tips of the sur­round­ing Langeberg Mountains, not vis­ible because of the blanket of clouds hov­er­ing over the town.

We've flir­ted with a stop at Clarke of the Karoo dur­ing our two-day visit here, but as yet haven't man­aged more than at least three drive-bys, so we pull in to a park­ing lot already filling up with cars (res­taur­ants should take note that park­ing a couple of cars out­side a venue is a sure draw card to pass­ers by) by now des­per­ate for a hot cuppa some­thing. Continued

Fetching cotton rugs – at Barrydale hand weavers

Barrydale Weavers

It would be pour­ing with rain on the day we visit the hand weavers in Barrydale. We run into what appears to be an old school hall, which we later learn is the town's former 'bio­scope' and are greeted by Tivane, whom I have already met over the week­end at the Montagu Village Market where he can usu­ally be found man­ning a stand selling rugs on a Saturday morning.

He steps down from the stage (it's one of those typ­ical old halls – wooden floors, stage at one end, gal­lery on the other) onto a freez­ing cold floor where we stand shud­der­ing at the com­bin­a­tion of wet and wind, and wel­comes us. Carol is on her way, but in the mean­time, Tivane is more than happy to show us the ropes, quite lit­er­ally, since he runs pro­duc­tion here and has been weav­ing rugs for what must be close to 25 years. Continued

Barrydale – much to explore

Barrydale

Arriving in Barrydale is like a breath of fresh air. Nothing quite pre­pares you for its uniquely arty bent or pret­ti­ness, other than the fact that people are talk­ing about it. And one soon under­stands why. Barrydale is quirky, home to at least two cob houses, dry shale walls, loads of res­taur­ants, the infam­ous Karoo hotel, a labyrinth, hot springs, a com­munity of both English and Afrikaans speak­ing artists, a fair num­ber of French, German, Spanish and Italian res­id­ents, vine­yards, a group of hand weavers, and views to die for.

The town lies in the lush Tradouw val­ley, at the north­ern end of the Tradouws Pass sur­roun­ded by the Langeberg and Swartberg Mountains, roughly an hour from Montagu. Drive a little way out of town and orch­ards filled with apple, pear, orange, apricot, fig and peach trees dom­in­ate the farm­lands, the odd derel­ict barn or farm build­ing next to a wind­mill a sign that you're in the Karoo and that aver­age sum­mer heat reaches up to Continued

Bella Montagu

Montagu — The Views

Friends of mine were not exag­ger­at­ing when they described Montagu as a Victorian vil­lage, with streets lined with Cape Dutch style monu­ments. The quaint town, set on Route 62, sur­roun­ded by vine­yards, fruit orch­ards and moun­tains is indeed a per­fectly pre­served vil­lage that makes one feel as if you have stepped back in time. Long and Bath streets are riddled with white-washed, thatched roofed and grape-vine stoeped build­ings that dur­ing autumn are rife with red, brown and barely there rendi­tions of the fruit vine that make one itch to stay here forever. Continued

Karoo National Park – a little piece of heaven

Tankwa Karoo

The Karoo National Park must be one of the most vis­ible national parks in the coun­try. If you travel on the N1 at all between Cape Town and Johannesburg, then you've whizzed past it at 120 kilo­metres an hour.

I say this assuredly, as just ahead is the town of Beaufort West, when trav­el­ling from Cape Town, and the bal­ly­hoo of a fine, a requis­ite part of any trip between the two major cit­ies issued by traffic officers unseen, is why you will have taken more notice of the speed limit than any sign indic­at­ing the park, and is pos­sibly why the park remains so under­rated ... Continued

Waterval Drift Rest Stop in the Karoo

When vis­it­ing the Karoo, you’re sure to hear about the incred­ibly scenic Meiringspoort Pass, an altern­at­ive to Thomas Bain’s remark­able feat of engin­eer­ing: The Swartberg Pass. But what you may not hear about, is some­thing we found quite by acci­dent while trav­el­ling the 97km road from Prince Albert to Calitzdorp. The mod­ern­ity of the road and the rest stops en-route were already a huge sur­prise (I’d expec­ted some­thing a little more rus­tic). Our curi­os­ity was piqued Continued