Route 62 – a classic South African road trip

From Franschhoek I drove east, towards the small town of Oudtshoorn, about 400km away. My route took me first over the Franschhoek pass, which offered the first of many spectacular views.

After some more driving, I reached Route 62, famous as one of South Africa’s most scenic drives. It went through a mountain pass up to plateau known as the Klein Karoo. Normally this area is semi-desert, but this year the South African winter has seen unusually heavy rain, and now the road was flanked by green plants and flowers. It was a pleasant change after the relentlessly dry landscapes of Namibia.

The road was good, traffic was light, and my progress was fast. To make driving even more pleasant, Route 62 heads through some nice towns like Montagu and Ladismith, which had excellent cafés.

After a final mountain pass……

…….I reached Oudtshoorn in the late afternoon. The town is known as the ostrich capital of the world, and was the centre of a brief boom in the early 1900s, when ostrich feathers were fashionable in Europe and extremely expensive. Now Oudtshoorn is a sleepy, pleasant provincial town and still a centre for ostrich farming. More about this in tomorrow’s post!

I relaxed in my hotel and had dinner in a local restaurant.  Despite once again spending most of my time in the car, I had enjoyed the day. The scenery was spectacular and very varied, the driving fast and easy, and the small towns along the way had been welcoming and offered good coffee. South Africa lends itself to road trips.

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