My sister Liz’s birthday so we send her nice notes as they are in Brittany for the week, driving compliments of son Nick. How kind.
It’s 30 degrees by 10:45 so we are off to the famous Swartzberg Pass. An amazing climb up through a narrow river/stream gorge, up 200m to On Tol Creasy by 11:45am. It is a tortuous, narrow road and we were warned our vehicle could not make it. But Ted drives slowly and sure enough, we meet only one other small sedan. Not a lot of traffic as it’s a dirt road for 40km, mostly trucks and SUVs and 4 wheel drives. Around every corner another gorgeous view of the colored folded rocks that make up this range.
It’s scary passing other cars as we are on the mountain side going up. The cyclists are fearless too. Vans can take them and bikes up and they can just cycle down but a few are lone doing both up and down.
Ted does the descent for half an hour in first gear. AFter 1.5 hours we meet tarmac again. Into a fertile valley between this and another range, miles of vines and into the festival town of Oudtshoorn, where the whole Main Street is closed for a huge culture festival. used ot be jazz, got out of hand, and now reined in apparently. WE are looking for gas and after several attempts to get where the GPS says they have it, we drive out of town and easily find a good gas station.
This is the centre of the ostrich farming, you can visit one, ride one, buy decorated eggs, all things ostrich. The whole tourist thing. We pass.
Heading west again, we drive into the sleepy village of Calitzdorp, the port capital of SA. It has a passé feeling, mostly closed after the season, and surrounded by vast ugly townships. We can walk in the dark to the nearest resto, few open now, with few clients. We settle for the funky general store cum cafe and enjoy beers and good lab shanks and are home at 7:30 to the huge deserted and austere Port Wine Guest House. Owner Pierre is attentive enough but we feel out of place in this vast historic house and garden, even when two other guests appear for the night.
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