Olifantsberg

Following our Table Mountain exertions, we drove in our hire car to The Franscchoek Valley for a wine tasting tour (great recommendation Richard & Bec xx) on the famous tram and bus lines. Franscchoek is only an hour from Cape Town and the valley is picture perfect with colonial Dutch and French architecture nestling alongside fields of vines stretching in all directions.

After a very easy drive, the apparent complexity of boarding a tram or numerous buses for the wine tasting tour soon dissipated as the organisational timetabling was as smooth and as enjoyable as the 2021 Semillon we were treated to at our 5th and final wine estate visit later that afternoon. There are over 40 wine estates in this area but we hit the jackpot at our last stop, Eikehof, where Caleb, our host, treated us to an absorbing and personal explanation of the wines, the vineyard and the family who own the business.

Our good fortune (or Carole’s brilliant accommodation selection) gave us another wonderful South African memory that evening. Our room for the night at Akedis Barns turned out to be a fully fledged cottage halfway up the eastern side of the valley with grounds that were laid out with paths, vegetation, sculptures, ponds and a 1km labyrinth maze based on the real deal at Chartres Cathedral in France. The surprising nature of this hidden wonderland was topped off when we discovered what had been labelled on the property description as, the Top Swimming Dam. This was a pool fed by a stream running down the mountain side, through the gardens and facing the setting sun.

As we watched the sun set behind the mountains surrounding Franscchoek we both had a real ‘pinch me’ moment. In one day, Table Mountain, gorgeous, historic wine estates, and now this pool.

Breakfast early the next morning up at the pool was equally delightful as we planned our next journey away from Franscchoek towards The Karoo, a semi desert region which is South Africa’s answer to The Great Australian Outback. Most of this journey was along Route 62 which stretches for 850kms from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. The road provided us with views of never ending mountain ranges, vast fruit farms with row upon row of peaches, pears, apples, olives and towering processing plants. If our rented Hyundai had had a top, it would have been down as we sang and cruised our way across the almost deserted highway.

As we took the final turn towards our next overnight stay, Rooiberg Lodge, the carefree spirit came to an abrupt end, Hopefully, our photos on this footprint sufficiently illustrate the story but in brief, the next 44kms on a rutted dirt track were as scary as hell. We bounced, shook, rattled and rolled across the most desolate, amazing, magical landscape wondering why the hell we (Carole, again!) had booked such an off the map hotel or more pertinently, why had we not upgraded our tiny economy category rental car to a 4 by 4!

As our dust trail cleared at the hotel entrance, we spotted the inevitable - a puncture! The wheel change was easy enough but this left us with no spare for our next journey which would either be back along the route we had just travelled and a huge diversion to get to The Garden Route, or a more direct but 84 kilometre drive down an similarly unpaved road.

Our decision making was delayed for the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool and the watering hole in front of our room, as zebras, kudu, nyala and a variety of other animals descended from the surrounding hills to drink and feed right in front of us. We had come a long way to Rooiberg but as dusk fell, this was an enchanting vista.

Enchanting would be a generous description of our drive the next day, as we plumped for the longer route and another rough dirt/gravel track. For two and a half hours we were part of an otherworldly, never ending desert, high up in the Langberg Mountains with almost no habitation, farms or other vehicles.

At times we could see our dusty, brown route snaking way ahead in the distance and with each bump and jolt, we feared the worst for our little car .

The track seemed to be following the length of the mountain range and for about 60kms, our views were of clouds rolling halfway down the higher slopes until a swing south took us through a steep mountain pass and we descended into a thick forested area from where we finally, finally emerged onto a tarmac road surface in the settlement of Herbertsdale.

What a glorious place to be as we stopped the car, inspected the 4 gorgeous, dusty, unpunctured wheels and thanked our lucky stars that we had made it intact through such an amazingly remote wilderness and could now look ahead to a few days of more sedate, drama free days exploring The Garden Route of the Western Cape of South Africa.Read more