The Great Karoo, the Klein Karoo, & the Garden Route--part 3

Time to leave BW and to head south and a little west. That means we leave the Great Karoo and cross the Swartberg Mountains to get to the Klein Karoo. To do this we have to drive through one of the numerous passes through the mountains. We take the pass through Meiringspoort, a route that follows the valley of the Groot River gorge. What a ride this is, twisting and turning through the folds of the sandstone layers of the Cape mountains.
And along the way there are very nice places to pull off to admire the view, each with big open areas with restrooms and picnic shelters with braai facilities of one sort or another. South Africans love to braai!

Where we pulled over there were additional informational displays and a short path to one of the many waterfalls in these mountains. The buildings in these areas were all thatch-roofed structures. These roofs are constructed of a species of restio. Restios are southern hemisphere plants that in appearance are very similar to our rushes, Juncus. But there are so many different species here, over 300 ranging from a few cm in size to meters. Many species were used for thatching historically but now one species is commercially most used, Thamnochortus insignis. The literature states that good thatch roofs can last from 30 years along the coast to 70 years in dry regions such as the Karoo. And they are very attractive!

It appeared that a number of the buildings where we stopped had been damaged by falling rocks. Workers were busy reconstructing the roofs of two of the buildings. Thought this might be of interest.

Note how thick the thatch layer is, and how flat and smooth edged the finished roof is.


Just a note about the informational display. As has been the case for informational displays in a number of settings, there were numerous fresh plant specimens presented. With each were scientific name and common names, usually both English and Afrikans, and use and/or importance information. Where would you see this in the States?

The Meiringspoort is a botanically rich region. Plants from four different veld types can be found: forest (more found along the coast where we are going), Great Karoo, Klein Karoo, and fynbos. The result is very high soecies diversity and many endemics. It is from here that the wild geranium Pelargonium zonale was collected in 1689. This is one of the most important parent plants in the modern geranium industry. Quite a place.

Once through the mountains we stopped in Oudtshoorn, the hub of the Klein Karoo and the center of the orchid feather boom in the 1880s. It is a big city now and ostriches still play a large role in its life. But now it is not for feathers but meat and leather are the products. And to perform for the tourists at one of the many ostrich show farms. After lunch we strolled through a bit of downtown Oudtshoorn, calling it quits when LRW couldn't overcome the barriers. Then we packed up and headed to Calitzdorp.

As we got closer to Calitzdorp we noticed a large whitish raptor on the telelphone poles, not just a few but many. These were southern pale chanting goshawks. And the Calitzdorp area is a hotspot for them. There was also one jackal buzzard that played hard-to-see with us. It flew just out of view as soon as we approached too close. Pretty to watch it fly at least!

And before we knew it we had driven through Calitzdorp. It is even smaller than BW. I don't remember seeing a robot in town! We found Port-Wine Guest House, thatch roof and a grape vine arbor and a vineyard and the mountains out our window. We decide to have dinner here tonight. Good decision. Delicious food and Malva pudding for dessert. Had a nice chat with Zurika, number two in charge and in charge of the kitchen. She spent a year in Winston-Salem, NC, as an au pair. Small world. She will help us in deciding what to do the next day. Great people once again.

Edward