Almost to Hel and back

Today we turned inland and our drive took us up hill (mountain) and down dale. From Harold's Bay we drove through George before traversing the Outeniqua mountain pass to Oudshoorn. This town in the Klein Karoo is renown for its ostriches as well as its natural beauty and is approximately 1000ft (300m) above sea level.  We didn't stop in Oudshoon but continued on across the Klein Karoo towards Carlitsdorp.

This haven is also known as the port wine capitol of South Africa, due to the quality of the port wines made by the local wine cellars. Top quality wines are produced in Calitzdorp mainly by Boplaas, De Krans, Axe Hill and Calitzdorp wine cellar. We called in at Boplaas for a little wine tasting and bought a bottle or two to take 'home' with us. 

Back in the car, we turned towards De Kruis (Kruis river), past the Swartburg (black mountain) private game reserve -another delightful 'poor man's game drive' and on to the Swartburg pass. This beautiful mountain pass climbed steeply on a winding dirt road to a saddle aptly named De Top at a mere 5200ft (1580m) which cut across the mountain just below the Waboonsburg peak, rising to a majestic 6570ft (2000m). We soaked up the magnificent views which covered the Klein Karoo on one side and the Groot Karoo on the other then we continued to a viewing point on the descent . On the way to the viewing point we passed a signpost for a small town called Die Hel which I am sure need no translation especially for those who know that the Karoo is semi-desert. Needless to say, we didn't venture down that road.

Swartburg Pass

On our return we passed Cango caves which are situated in a limestone ridge that runs parallel to the Swartburg mountains. Since we had visited them on a previous holiday, we passed them by this time and continued on to the Surval Boutique Olive Estate,  where we rounded off our experience with 

fine-dining at the exotic Su Casa restaurant.