Route 62

Wine Towns of

by Patrick Madden

The Garden Route winds its way up a narrow stretch of South Africa's eastern coast, pressed against the Indian Ocean by a protective line of rugged mountains - the Langeberge (long mountains) and the Outeniqua Mountains. They're a protective companion on the journey up the coast - a topological hug directing travellers' attentions out over the Indian Ocean.

Rarely will tourists' paths lead to the other side of the mountains, but beyond them lies another route northeast from Cape Town, equally beautiful if far less famous. This is Route 62, the Garden Route's little sibling, and the route and its winelands are screaming for attention.

Route 62 is so named because most of the route occupies the R62 road from Montagu to Port Elizabeth, with some of the most interesting towns, most superb scenery, and most prolific vineyards in South Africa en route.

Montagu

You can get to Montagu from Cape Town via the inland N1 or the coastal N2. The N1 takes you there via Worcester, a town whose surrounding vineyards produce one fifth of South Africa's wine. Sadly most of it is plonk, but the Kleinplasie (small farmlet) cultural village is an absorbing interest, and the wine shop next door sells the pick of the local wines.

Robertson lies 30km west of Montagu, but there's no particular reason to visit the town except for its winery, whose stock is decidedly quaffable. Montagu is a different story - stunningly situated in a narrow valley in the mountains and beautified with peach and apricot blossoms and Victorian architecture. It's probably the ideal base for exploring the wine region south of the N1, though there's enough in the town alone to justify a one- or two-night stay.

Montagu is also the first town on Route 62, and the approach to the town sets the tone for the rest of the journey â€" a winding road through towering orange cliffs of buckling, twisting rock strata along the banks of a mountain river.

The Mountain Route

After its beginning in the dramatic mountains of Montagu, most of Route 62's scenery is courtesy of the Klein Karoo (little Karoo). A huge, dry, khaki-coloured hinterland of open plains and low scrub, the little Karoo was the first daunting frontier faced by trekkers from the Cape in South Africa's early colonial history.

It's a true wide-open space, treeless and punctuated only by flat-topped hills and interjecting koppies underneath the massive blue African sky. The Klein Karoo eventually fades into the Groot Karoo semi-desert that dominates a full third of South Africa's surface.

Small towns

The route through the Klein Karoo is a long one, and passes two dorpies (small Afrikaans towns), Barrydale and Ladismith, which aren't much more than passing curiosities or refuelling points along the way. The first notable town - a solid two hours' drive from Montagu - is Calitzdorp, home to some inconspicuous but very good wine farms that produce some of the best port in the country.

Half an hour after Calitzdorp, the well-trumpeted town of Oudtshoorn features ostrich farms and the fantastic Cango Caves. Unfortunately there's not much by way of tipple to be had in Oudtshoorn and the wining prospects only get bleaker from there on up the Route 62.

Swellendam

The N2 route to Montagu passes through Swellendam, a pretty historical town at the foot of the Langeberge and the first highlight of my short weekend expedition. Founded in 1745 as the last 'civilised' port of call for trekkers from the Cape, Swellendam has many points of interest. These include one of the best historical museums in the country, a gorgeous local restaurant in the Old Gaol, and the decidedly anomalous Sulina Faerie Sanctuary.

The latter is the realisation of one Swellendam resident's unabashed flight of faerie fantasy. The magical continent of Sulina is entered through two solid wooden gates, which enclose an overgrown garden inhabited by hundreds of gnomes, faeries, wizards, pet dragons and mystical castles.

A footpath leads around the tiny house (whose interior is wall-to-wall with faerie paraphernalia), taking the traveller on a quietly enchanting excursion through a forest of gurgling streams, pixie villages, mushroom circles and whimsical elves peering out from the undergrowth.

Jan Harmsgat

On the other side of the looking glass, the R60 from Swellendam meanders up to Montagu via Ashton. The route traverses the foothills of the Langeberge, and passes on its way the lovely guesthouse of Jan Harmsgat Country House, where I overnighted. The two wonderful hosts, Brin and Judi, have just the right touch with their guests - professional but not impersonal, friendly but not overbearing - and the cuisine and wine are sumptuous.

The guest house itself is beautifully set in one of the small valleys of the Langeberge foothills. The whitewashed walls of the main house overlook a vineyard and a river. It's an ideal base for some of the beautiful walks in the region, or as a one- or two-night stay for travellers of the Garden Route or Route 62.

Robertson Wine Valley

The area between Swellendam and Worcester (containing Robertson, Montagu and Ashton) is known as the Robertson Wine Valley - home of the Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cap Classique (bubbly) cultivars in the Western Cape. More than thirty-five vineyards dot the landscape here at the very start of Route 62.

The area is host to two of the biggest events on the South African wine calendar. The Wacky Wine Weekend, held on the first weekend of every June, is probably the finest wine tourism event in South Africa. It's hosted by all the participating wineries across the gorgeous Robertson Valley; just pick your route and wobble your way around the lovely countryside.

The more centralised Robertson Wine Festival (20th - 21st October 2006) takes place in Robertson. More than 250 wines are available for tasting, with their makers close at hand to discuss them. Food stalls and kids' activities are also available, and all the wines are sold at cellar price.

Tulbagh

The charming town of Tulbagh is north of the N1. It's only includable on Route 62 by a stretch of spatial imagination, though some maintain that the loop of road on which it lies is also part of the Route. Either way, it's such a charming town that it had to be visited.

Accessible in just over an hour from Cape Town, or up from the south via the slightly scary but very beautiful Bain's Kloof Pass, at first glance Tulbagh seems like just another South African dorp. From the deep-dipping main road, there's nothing particularly remarkable about the town. But on Church Street, just behind the main road, is an olden-day streetscape worthy of a period epic.

The cultural heritage of the town and the Cape is lavishly displayed here, with magnificent Cape Dutch architecture and its brimming rose gardens and jutting gables. The museum, occupying three properties on Church Street, is interesting but nothing on its Swellendam counterpart.

Tulbagh's Oude Drostdy Museum is another scene of excellent Cape Dutch architecture; an old prison that's now a tasting room. You'll find a fair capacity for wine tasting in Tulbagh, with the wine house next to the Paddagang (literally "frog passage") on Church Street also offering tastings in a decidedly comical setting.

Bartholomeus Klip

If you're in the Tulbagh area and have a taste for the spacious and the indulgent, you won't do any better than stay at Bartholomeus Klip, as I did. Set on a nature reserve and a working sheep and wheat farm below the looming Elandskloof Mountains, the sheer old-style luxury of this small hotel has an air of the faintly ridiculous, which adds to its immense charm.

The mountains overlooking Bartholomeus Klip nature reserve are also called the Limietberge because they were the limit of a single day's horseback ride from Cape Town (and now the limit of a single hour's drive). When ships docked at the old trading station at the Cape, a rider would climb the incredibly steep and forbidding Elandsberge and light a torch on the peak to alert the farmers beyond that they should bring their wares to market.

I learned this from Adri, the lovely ranger who took us on a game drive in the Bartholomeus Klip reserve. The reserve is stocked with antelope of many kinds as well as small predators like bat-eared foxes (or, as they are sometimes affectionately known, fat-eared boxes) and larger ones like leopards. The main attraction, though, is the geometric tortoise, a very small and endangered tortoise species.

If Jan Harmsgat's food was sumptuous, superlatives fail to describe the cuisine at Bartholomeus Klip. A deep cellar and a superb chef make wining and dining here an experience to be savoured. Add to this a swimming pool, a dam for fishing and canoeing, and mountain bikes available to ride in the nature reserve, and you'll begin to understand why I could rave about Bartholomeus Klip for ages. Suffice to say that in my view it's the acme of accommodation on a tour of the wine route.

Unblazed Wine Trails

The Cape Winelands are so expansively beautiful that it's perfectly satisfying just to potter at whim around the region. If morals and wine can ever be compatible, the moral of this story is that wonderful adventures (and faerie encounters) await travellers of the Cape's unblazed trails.

Print this page |  Send to a friend

Related content