We arrived at Prince Albert in the late afternoon and decided on a campsite situated on the Prince Albert Olives farm on the outskirts of town.
The town lies at the foot of the Swartberg Pass on the edge of the Great Karoo. Thirteen of the town’s houses carry Provincial Heritage status. We paid a visit to the Fransie Pienaar museum which depicts the natural and cultural history of the town and surrounding areas. The museum was created to house Fransie’s collection of ‘collectables’ which she had gathered over her lifetime.
Roger was rather fascinated by the old ‘leivoor’ system. It is an old-fashioned water sharing concept whereby a furrow (small canal) runs through the town and has a sluice gate at each property with water rights. The canal is fed from the perennial Dorps River and each property is allocated a timeslot according to a pre-defined schedule.
We had a traditional Karoo dinner at the Karoo Kitchen, run by former SAA flight attendants Theuns, Michael and Denise. The food was outstanding, as was their hospitality! A lunch at The Lazy Lizard was just as delicious. Lunch at the Victorian Room at the Swartberg Hotel was not quite so good; the coffee disappointed as did the service, but the food was OK. Just as well we do not stay in these places for too long. We would be ‘round’ and bankrupt…
One of the things that impressed us is that there are no beggars or car guards. The town is neat and clean and we get the feeling that it is well run and safe.
The highlight of our visit was our trip to the Gamkaskloof, also known as ‘Die Hel’. This has been on our bucket list for a very long time. We left Ufudu and the trailer in camp and set off in Suzi.
The route takes one via the Swartberg pass, turning off onto Elands Pad, officially known as the Otto du Plessis Road. The Swartberg pass was the last one built by Thomas Bain. Construction started in 1881 and was completed in 1887. It was officially opened to traffic in 1888. It is now a national monument and forms part of the Swartberg World Heritiage site. The Elands Pad and pass was only constructed in 1963. Until that time it was considered to be impossible to build such a road and access to the Gamkaskloof was only possible on foot or horseback.
I can safely say that we were overwhelmed by the views, the magnitude and the splendour of the mountains. One cannot describe it; you have to experience it for yourself. Somehow photos just don’t do it justice…
At the turn-off to Elands Pad an information board warned that the trip would take 2 hours. With all our stops to ID birds, photograph views and just marvel at the splendour, we ended up taking 4 hours! Luckily we had phoned ahead and Elmarie at the Cape Nature Conservation office was very accommodating. She made dinner reservations for us at the restaurant and although the office officially closed at 16h00 she was there to check us in at 17h00. How wonderful to have passionate people in the front office!
We paid an early morning visit to the information centre and came away enlightened. Popular belief has it that these people were backward as a result of inbreeding due to their 130-year isolation. This is not the case at all. They were self-sufficient subsistence farmers that were hard-working and strong and were simply behind in terms of world developments and technology.
We had a late breakfast at the Fontein Gasteplaas’ restaurant before starting our return journey. The guest farm is owned and operated by the last of the original ‘Kloovers’ and her son.
On our way back we passed another vehicle at one of the many narrow sections of road. Roger had to fold in the side mirror.
The road meanders over numerous little streams that are absolutely crystal clear and beautiful. We filled our water bottles directly from the stream.
We came across a family of Klipspringer that clearly viewed the road as an important part of their territory. They did not move away and even gave us a good display of their scent-marking ritual.
We reluctantly left the pass after spending 6 hours covering the 48Km from Gamkaskloof, enjoying every aspect of it.
In closing I have to say: if this is what ‘hell’ is like, I want to go there please… What a wonderful experience it was to go there and back. We will be back, next time to do one of the hikes…
If you would like to read more about the passes you can follow the links below. They also have uTube videos which are very informative.
Hey Letitia and Roger
You brought back memories of our Swartberg Hiking Experience, 3 days of hiking in those magnificent mountains – if you want to hike them, please count me in. We had to travel the road out of “Die Hel” at about 4:30 in the morning so that we could get to “De Hoek” to start our hike at 07h00.. the headlights of the car, so it seemed, were never on the road because we were constantly turning the tight U-shaped road twists and turns.
As always, I’ve enjoyed reading your blog. Keep it us you two…… Loves, hugs and kisses xxxx
Thanks my friend. Always good to know that there are some readers out there! The Swartberg and surrounds is a very special place indeed…