Barrydale, Warmwaterberg SPA

Thirty kilometres east of Barrydale is Warmwaterberg SPA, a Karoo farm blessed with natural hot water siphoned into two unchlorinated hot pools and surrounded by lush green lawns and lofty palms.



Primarily aimed at South Africans, it gets rather crowded and noisy during school holidays and over weekends.


Indeed, the best time of day to enjoy the baths is after dark, when the steam rises into the cold, starry Karoo sky.

Accomodation is basic, reasonably priced and all self-catering - in wooden cabins or rooms in the main farmhouse, each of which has an indoor spa bath.

There are also some campsites, a bar and a restaurant serving dinners and breakfasts.

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Sanbona Wildlife Reserve

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Twenty kilometres west of Barrydale, Sanbona
Wildlife Reserve is the 
amalgamation of 21 farms that together create a massive wilderness area.

The landscape is gorgeous  - rocky outcrops, mountains and semi-desert vegetation with luxurious all-inclusive lodges, Dwyka Tented Lodge and Gondwana Family Lodge.

Dwynka is closer to where most of the game is to be found and has the more spectacular setting, while Gondwana is great if you are travelling with kids.


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The price includes two game drives a day, but, owing to the vegetation, the game is far sparser here than in the major game-viewing areas such as the Kruger National Park.

Having said that, it is the only place in the Western Cape with free-roaming lions and cheethas and there's a herd of elephants.


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Sanbona is worth considering only if you are set on seeing some big game and don't have time for Kruger.
A two-night stay is recommended and day visitors are not allowed.


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Montagu Springs Resort

Montagu's main draw is the Montagu Springs Resort; several chlorinated open-air pools of different temperatures and a couple of jacuzzis are spectacularly situated at the foot of cliffs - an effect spoilt by the neon lights of a hotel complex and fast-food restaurant.



It's a fabulous place to take kids, but the weekends become a mass of splashing bodies.

If you want a quiet time, go first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

The temperatures in winter are not hot enough to be entirely comfortable, when you're better off heading to the springs at Caledon or Warmwaterberg, which are much hotter and quieter.

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Montagu for Rock Climbers !

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Montagu is best known by serious rock climbers that come for its cliff faces, which are regarded as among the country's most challenging.

One of South Africa's top climbers runs De Bos Guest Farm, which you could use as a base for climbing.


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You can also explore the mountains on a couple of trails or, easiest of all, on a tractor ride onto one of the peaks.

Montagu is also conveniently positioned for excursions along both the Robertson and Little Karoo wine routes.


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On Saturday mornings, don't miss the local farmer's market at the church, where you can get local olives and olive oil, bread, cheese, almonds and dried fruit from the surrounding farms - all exceptionally well priced.


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Montagu

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As you approach Montagu, soaring mountains rise up in vast arches of twisted strata that display reds and ochres; in spring, the town, known for its fruit growing, is full of peach and apricot blossoms.

Montagu is certainly very pleasing, with sufficient Victorian architecture to create an historic character, and worth a night at least.


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The town was named in 1851 after John Montagu, the visionary British Secretary of the Cape, who realized that the colony would never develop without decent communications and was responsible for commissioning the first mountain passes connecting remote areas to Cape Town.

The grateful farmers of Agter Cogman's Kloof - literally: "behind Cogman's Kloof" - leapt at the chance of a snappier moniker for their village and named it after him.


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McGregor

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McGregor is an attractive place, with thatched, whitewashed cottages glaring in the summer daylight amid the low, rusty steel-wool scrub, vines and olive trees, and a quiet, relaxed atmosphere that has attracted a small population of spiritual seekers and artists.


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It makes a great weekend break from Cape Town, with a couple of good restaurants, plenty of well-priced accomodation, and a beautiful retreat centre with reasonably priced massage.

Spending a day wine tasting around McGregor and Robertson is another drawcard, as long as it's not a Sunday when almost everything is closed.


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McGregor gained modest prosperity in the nineteenth century by becoming a centre of the whipstock industry, supplying wagoners and transport riders with long bamboo sticks for goading oxen.

There aren't too many ox-drawn wagons today, and tourism, though developing, is still quite limited.

A great draw is to walk the Boesmanskloof
Traverse, which starts 14 km from McGregor and crosses to Greyton on the other side of the mountain.

From McGregor you can walk a section of trail, hiking to the main waterfall and back to the trailhead, which is a three- to four - hour round hike of exceeding beauty through the river gorge (kloof in Afrikaans).



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Barrydale and Around

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Barrydale, 240 km from Cape Town, is perfect for a couple of days of doing very little other than experiencing small-town life in the Little Karoo.


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There's a distinct rural feel about the town: vineyards line the main road, farm animals are kept on large plots of land behind dry-stone walling, and you'll find fig, peach, and quince trees thriving in the dryness; unsurprisingly, its beauty and tranquillity have made it an artists' haven.

West of town you'll find big game at the magnificent Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, though day visitors are not accepted.
To the east, you can totally relax at the Warmwaterberg hot springs.


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