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Gordon’s Bay – Cape Agulhas – Bredasdorp – Caledon – Greyton – Swellendam – Barrydale – Calitzdorp – Matjesrivier – Swartberg Pass – Oudtshoorn – George – Knysna – Plettenberg – Knysna
1,094km cycled
28 Oct – 21 Nov, 2022
Having travelled south to Cape Town mostly on the inland N7, we were curious about what South Africa’s south coast had to offer. Our friend Andrew drove us out to Gordon’s Bay, thus avoiding Cape Town’s biggest sprawling township along the N2.
A taste of Ireland is what we got on the Whale Coast Route (R43) southeast of Cape Town. The weather even played suit as we cycled past the Misty Mountain Estate outside Stanford … and we got wet! The scenery in this neck of the woods is so reminiscent of the Emerald Isle, it’s no great surprise that during the filming of “Ryan’s Daughter” in 1969, many scenes were shot on a beach in the Southern Cape when the sun refused to shine on the Dingle Peninsula! Once the eye is trained, whale watching is no great challenge and we spotted many of these huge mammals from the beach.
Having noticed no line in the ocean marking the meeting of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans at Cape Point south of Cape Town, we just had to explore further. We headed for the southerly most point of the African Continent: Cape Agulhas. Well, the journey was a pilgrimage in itself as we battled head wind on a rough gravel road. On arriving at the sign marking the official meeting of oceans, the water was so wild and choppy if there were any line to be seen, it wasn’t going to be visible that day! Apparently, the meeting and mixing of the oceans go on over an area of about 100km much further south. The line is just an arbitary line… just like how the colonials drew their borders in the 1800s!
Our route then led us north west to Greyton to catch up with Lynne and Alastair, who were among the offroad cyclists who rescued us in Namibia! Again, we experienced true South African hospitality, this time in a beautiful little town where horses roam freely in a laid-back atmosphere.
The Klein Karoo Valley, bordered by the Swartberg Mountains in the north and the Langeberge and Outeniqua Mountains in the south, was certainly a highlight for us in South Africa.
The R62 strings together a bunch of cute colonial towns, with picturesque mountain passes, rolling hills, vineyards, and fruit and ostrich farms completing the picture.
It was in Barrydale that Darina enjoyed the Irish rugby team’s win over South Africa and where South African hospitality struck again. Imagine total strangers stopping for a chat on the roadside and inviting us to stay in their cosy garden shed en suite. They reserve a table at the local “Dung Beetle” pub so that we can watch the match, and then organise dinner and arrive bright and early with a fry-up before we leave the next morning! Well, that’s South Africa! Tom and Connie, you are legends!
We have to point out that this exceptional hospitality was always offered by the white population. There were a number of towns we cycled through, where the hostility towards whites was immediately tangible. When droves of kids returning home from school totally ignored us, we were taken aback. It wasn’t until Darina had stones thrown at her and had a couple of teenage boys aggressively attempt to stop her bike and pull the luggage off, that this divide became more blatant. The boys were known to the police, who “chase them out of town” on a daily basis!
All is not well in South Africa and the racial divide stemming from Apartheid is something that is not going to disappear anytime soon. The whites still live in the leafy neighbourhoods, while the townships sprawl out of all proportions. And as long as there is poverty and unemployment, there will be friction and crime. It’s a sad state of affairs if a parents’ dream for their kids is that they study abroad and never return.
No trip to this part of the world would be complete without stopping at Ronnie’s Sex Shop! When Ronnie’s farm stall shop was slow to take off, his friends decided to add a magic three letter word to his sign to see what would happen! Well, the rest is history, and 25 years later, business in booming. Instead of 5kg bags of spuds and crates of carrots, bras and knickers hang from the rafters left by patrons keen to pay homage to the theme. The lad himself has become a legend and is renowned worldwide for his bar and Roadkill Café in the middle of nowhere!
Detours from the R62 into Seweweekspoort, along the Nelsrivier and up the Swartbergpass were rewarding and well worth the extra effort.
Oudtshoorn is known as the ostrich capital of the world. The place boomed in the early 1900s when they started farming ostriches for their feathers and the many ostrich palaces in town highlight the fortunes made by these Ostrich Barons at a time when 1kg of ostrich feathers was worth more than 1kg of gold! They soon figured out that the soft leather could also be exploited, and the main export market for their creative cowboy boots is now Texas! Needless to say, when ostrich meat became a low-fat alternative to red meat, the town was quick to react. We enjoyed ostrich meat in all its forms over the three days we spent there!
One of our main reasons for including this area on our itinerary was to visit the Cango Caves. Dating back 20 million years, these spectactular limestone caverns have been impressing visitors since the 1800s.
You can’t NOT do the Garden Route! So was the chorus when we hinted at skipping South Africa’s pride and joy. The lush subtropical vegetation and white-sand beaches are the draw, but as the tourist information pointed out: “We don’t do road cycling here!”.
The N2 is not where you want to be as a cyclist, but there are loads of challenging mountain bike gravel trails and coastal hikes that allow you to enjoy this spectacular part of the world relatively traffic free. Hikers won’t be disappointed either, and we can highly recommend the Robberg Nature Reserve south of Plettenberg Bay.
Not only do you get to experience spectacular scenery on the Garden Route, but you also get to camp under banana trees and have elegant ladies take your bike for a spin!
We avoided wild camping on this stretch because of security issues. Campgrounds generally cost about 100-200 Rand/person (6-12 Euros/person) and a B&B room in town went for 400-800 Rand (24-48 Euros). Food did not disappoint and portions were well suited to hungry cyclists’ appetites. Main courses in this tourist stretch ranged from 100-400 Rand (6-24 Euros). And Kurt was always a happy man when there was malva pudding on the dessert menu!
As most long-distance touring cyclists use Cape Town as their start/destination on a north-south Trans-Africa trip, touring cyclists were low on the ground on this stretch. However, we did enjoy an evening with Martina and Klaus from Germany touring South Africa on their tandem.
This chapter of our South Africa trip opened our eyes on many fronts. While the racial divide and crime were underlying themes we couldn’t ignore, we got to experience yet again the sheer beauty and exceptional hospitality South Africa is famous for. How so many strangers and hosts went way beyond the call of duty to make us feel at home will never cease to amaze us.
If only South Africa could find a way to make ALL South Africans feel a vital part of the Rainbow Nation envisaged by Archbishop Tutu and Nelson Mandela in 1994.
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