We have had a fabulous time driving back west, inland along Route 62. While Route 66 in the U.S. has had its day, it is no longer a match for this highway in the southern section of South Africa. You seem to be constantly in a luscious river valley with all kinds of agriculture (mostly fruit) with mountains on either side of you, or travelling through gorges and mountain passes with beautiful sights below. The two most stunning passes, both over 25 km's long, occurred on a short diversion to Prince Albert (north of Oudtshoorn, not Saskatoon) where we stayed overnight on the advice of one of our hosts. On the way there we were impressed with the Meeringspoort Pass but the next morning the Swartberg Pass was even more spectacular, certainly on par with the Going to the Sun Highway in Montana which has been a favourite of ours. While in the area we also went into the Cango Caves where we ventured 600 metres into several large caverns and saw a large grouping of 1.5 million year old stalactites nicknamed the Petrified Forest. It was a nice place to be on a 40C day outside the cave. We could have gone further into the cave (1.2 km's) which would have involved some crawling and squeezing into narrow gaps, but there happened to be a nearby winery producing good port so we made the easy decision.
The next day, further along Route 62, in the middle of nowhere, we stopped at Ronnie's Sex Shop which had also been recommended by a host, after telling us it wasn't really what the name suggested. It was 10:30 am and Ronnie was there so we had a beer together at his small bar and he told me the story. He had bought the property with the intent of starting up a tourist quick stop shop but just before opening up his "buddies".........sounds like some of my friends........painted "Sex" on the wall next to "Ronnies Shop", telling him that it would attract more Customers. Once he got over his anger he decided to stick with the name and open it as a bar /restaurant instead. Since then (1997) the business has flourished and visitors keep leaving foreign paper currency on his walls and clothing articles which are personally signed, hanging from the rafters........it is quite a sight to see and it has become a popular stopover, made even easier by being included on all of the regional maps.
Today, after several more Pass crossings we finished our Route 62 travels and headed south to Paarl where we had our best meal of the trip at the Glen Carlou winery. Rhonda had the Rack of Lamb and I had the Pork Fillet. The meal was cooked and presented superbly, and together with some of their cellar wine on the deck overlooking the Paarl Valley, it made for a special afternoon.
We are now in Franschhoek, another wonderful wine area not far from Cape Town, where we will spend our final day before beginning our long journey back home. I will do a final post upon our return.
 |
| Meeringspoort Pass - just a small taste of things to come |
 |
| Swartberg Pass - the safe stretch where they had built a partial rock wall |
 |
| Cango Caves - large stalactites, stalagmites and columns, hundreds of thousand years old |
 |
| 16 years later and Ronnie still hasn't updated his original (and buddy-modified) sign |
 |
| Ronnie himself behind his bar |
 |
| Glen Carlou winery in Paarl - view from the deck with the Paarl Boulder (Ayres Rock look-a-like - really?) on top of the mountain |
 |
| Fabulous lunch on the deck - we had some leftover wine to take home but no food |
 |
| Pruning some of the wayward early vine growth |
No comments:
Post a Comment