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

Beaufort West, so much more than a typical Karoo dorp

Beaufort West

Beaufort West is regarded as the halfway mark when trav­el­ling on the N1 between Cape Town and Bloemfontein. The high­way runs right through the town, which is lined with a myriad of places to stay. But what we noticed when last there was that the town appears to have under­gone some­thing of a trans­form­a­tion from down­right shabby to shabby chic, and one's eye is drawn less to the fast food joints, and more to the his­tory of the town – the typ­ical Karoo build­ings dot­ted here and there like flour­ish­ing suc­cu­lents in amongst stones.

Beaufort West is not only the old­est town in the Central Karoo, it is also a thriv­ing little town, if our quick visit was any­thing to go by. Not only is there now a new Checkers centre with a huge, well-stocked Checkers store, and a Pick n Pay in the town (good news for any­one vis­it­ing the Karoo National Park and need­ing to stock up), but the his­tor­ical Karoo build­ings have by and large been restored and looked after, and the town's tour­ist inform­a­tion office is buzz­ing. Continued

'Die trein — toe toe toe toe toe toe — na Matjiesfontein'

Matjiesfontein

Aside from Matjiesfontein's renown as a train sta­tion in the heart of the Karoo (and David Kramer's very fam­ous song), I knew very little about the his­tor­ical Victorian vil­lage before turn­ing off the N1 on a glor­i­ously sunny after­noon, intent on a visit.

On first sight the pretty, wee town (it was foun­ded by a Scotsman after all) is a smat­ter­ing of old white build­ings steeped in his­tory, centred around a rail­way sta­tion through which the Blue Train makes a bi-weekly appear­ance. In fact we had chosen our tim­ing well, to coin­cide with the appear­ance of the Blue Train in little under an hour after our arrival, even if this coin­cid­ence was unin­ten­tional ... Continued

Breakfast at Café Albert in the little Karoo town, Prince Albert

Possibly the best break­fast I’ve ever had and a mean cap­puccino to boot is at Café Albert in the little Karoo town, Prince Albert. I can’t claim to be a con­nois­seur, but a week­end isn’t a week­end for me until I’ve gone out for break­fast. As such, I’ve tried break­fast spots all over South Africa (and in many other coun­tries) ... Continued

Nieu Bethesda – why it's worth a visit

Nieu Bethesda

These days, Nieu Bethesda is described as a charm­ing altern­at­ive to Graaff-Reinet. But back when I first paid the little town a visit, it was still 'in the middle of nowhere', rather off the beaten track. You went there primar­ily to visit Helen Martin's Owl House.

In fair­ness, things were start­ing to hap­pen even then. There was a little res­taur­ant I remem­ber, called some­thing like the 'wild fig' or 'burn­ing brin­jal', or an equally cre­at­ive name, on the sleepy main road in town (there are but two, main roads that is), the pretty Village Inn was already serving as an inform­a­tion / accom­mod­a­tion / cof­fee shop / tea garden as it con­tin­ues to do today, and Egbert's Coffee shop next to the Ibis Gallery (which I believe has also since closed) func­tioned as the town's water­ing hole of the non­al­co­holic kind ... Continued

A hell of a trip to Gamkaskloof

Between Prince Albert and Oudtshoorn runs the Swartberg Pass. It passes through the Swartberg range of moun­tains, the nat­ural divide between the plains of the Great Karoo and the val­leys of the Little Karoo, tak­ing in the Swartberg Nature Reserve. Weather depend­ing the trip isn't always advis­able in an ordin­ary sedan. But then if you're any­thing like me, you give warn­ings such as this little credance and head off along the pass any­way. Besides, any­thing you can do in a don­key­cart, you can do in a car, right? Continued

Weekending in Prince Albert – a welcome break from wet Cape Town

Road to Prince Albert

The drive alone is worth the four-hour trip from Cape Town to Prince Albert, and that was only the start of a week­end break that more than met expectations.

First off, let me emphas­ise that Prince Albert, which lies at the foot of the Swartberg Mountains that forms the bor­der between the Little and the Great Karoo, really is one of the best kept secrets of win­ter­ing in the Western Cape, and I write with more than a little reser­va­tion, so all who read this are sworn to secrecy!

I will not beat around the bush about the Karoo being cold dur­ing winter - it was icy — and snow-capped moun­tains formed the back­ground to much of our trip. But the days were blue, the scenery close to tear-jerking and the derth of vis­it­ors to the small Karoo town meant that we could only guess ... Continued

The Cango Caves

Cango Caves

The KhoiSan used the Cango Caves thou­sands of years ago as shel­ter but nobody else real­ized the beauty under the lime­stone ledge until the curi­os­ity of a farmer in 1780 made him lower him­self into the caves to invest­ig­ate. For the first time his dim torch showed an awe­some splend­our that still takes the breath away today as count­less people make the pil­grim­age to the caves each year.

The Cango Caves can be found about 26 kilo­metres north of the town of Oudtshoorn, which lies in the heart of the Little Karoo. In the last cen­tury the caves have become world renowned not only with South Africans but with inter­na­tional tour­ists as well, who visit the Cango Caves in droves. Giggling groups of school chil­dren visit the caves as part of their cur­riculum and dare each other to go through the Devil’s Chimney, a rather tight pas­sage in the caves and to be pos­ted down the Devil’s Post box that is only 27 cen­ti­metres wide. Continued