Route 62 Exploring

There are so many tourist venues in our lovely country. Many of them, unfortunately, seem only to be enjoyed by those who come from distant shores.

Route 62 travels through the Klein Karoo, giving you the tourist option for your trip from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth in stead of the N2. Majestic mountains, clean rivers and quaint towns will fill your trip with awe and entertainment.

We travelled to Robertson, Mac Gregor , Bonnivale and Montague all in a weekend. These towns are so diversely different - yet all within a very short drive of each other. Robertson is only an hour and half drive from Cape Town, so you can be out in the country without a flight ticket or using valuable holiday time travelling.

We stayed in Buitenstekloof Mountain Cottages, about 15 minutes drive from Robertson.  In the mountains and without any cell phone reception or Wi-Fi, yet it was close enough to jump in the car at 10pm to buy milk in Robertson (you never want to wake up to no coffee).
Beautifully appointed cottages on a farm, which remain cool even on the hottest day. The cottages are all solar and gas powered. There are lovely hikes and walks on the farm, and a mountain pool which is ideal for cooling off on a hot day.

Don't be alarmed when you have hairy visitors to your cottage, the area is very animal friendly so you are sharing your space with dassies, birds, tortoises and even a very brave and curious meerkat.

On our visit into Robertson we made a visit to Klipdrift distillery. Book for the tour and tasting, it is very informative and our guide Lenwill Lucas was excellent. Lenwill made us feel welcome from when we stepped into the foyer with welcome drinks of Klipdrft and ginger ale. The gourmet burger with brandy and coke onion sauce is on my replicate menu very soon.

The Tasting Room

 

Gourmet Burger 

Klipdrift Restaurant

The tour is about an hour long and it is very interesting to see how much goes into every drop of gold. There is a brandy for each taste, but perhaps not every budget, with the most expensive bottle selling at R928 a bottle. But if you are looking for a copper potstilled brandy, which would be called cognac if made in France, you certainly will be happy with the Klipdrift brandy.

There are so many wine farms in the area, you could tour from farm to farm for a month and never have to see the same place twice.

Take a short weekend break or a long holiday get away and enjoy the sights, sounds and relaxed atmosphere of country living with all the fun of city life then Route 62 should certainly be on your itinerary.