So a new year was here and the time to travel had come. With bags packed and a map in hand, I left Cape Town behind me and ventured off on a road trip across South Africa. After an enjoyable 120km drive from Cape Town, it was time to get off the N1 and start taking in the quieter, more scenic, back routes, if one can call them that.
I had always heard a lot and read a bit about Route 62 and knew it was very popular with biker rallies, so thought, why not give it a try. It did not hurt that it passed through Oudtshoorn, home of the spectacular Cango Caves, something I had wanted to conquer since the last time I was there as an 8-year old boy and had failed to complete what they now call the Adventure Tour.
So off the N1 we turned into Worcester, where Klipdrift is Worcestersous (for those of you who ever saw the Klipdrift billboard, which has since changed). Worcester has always stood out for me, as it is the first town outside of Cape Town, on the N1 that is, where you really start to notice the change in the landscape. The high rock faces that surround you as you pass the Du Toitskloof pass and the lush greenery, turn to a more open, dry landscape and you can’t help but feel the Karoo is getting near.
So it was through Worcester, past Robertson, with all its wonderful wine farms, (another weekend away planned for this year, which we will update you on when the time comes) and onto Montagu. On arriving in Montagu, it struck me how I could have taken my full three week holiday, just driving as far as we had, taking into consideration all the things we had had to speed past already: the wine farms, the Breede River, fly fishing and so on. And of course Montagu, famous to me as a great destination for rock climbing, not to say I have climbed here, but it’s another thing on the list for a weekend away in 2011. It was also in Montagu that my travelling partner and I found our best buy of the trip. As every traveller, (or maybe it was just us) knows that an expedition, also known as a road trip, is not the same without the right hat. And so it was in Montagu that we found that hat: the Rogue tin cloth hat, also known as The Legend. So with hats on hand (or on head at least) we carried on towards our final destination and our first overnight stop, Oudtshoorn.
But not before we saw exactly why the R62 is such a famed biker route, as one moves on past Montagu, the landscape opens up, the road becomes an open stretch and biker bars seem to have started growing on the side of the road. Then in the distance we saw it, our first “tourist” stop on this stretch of road, Ronnie’s Sex Shop, a famed biker bar, with a great story behind the name and an unrivalled bar, at least in my very limited experience of biker bras, I mean bars. I think Ronnie’s is something everyone should experience for themselves, so won’t tell you anymore, other than to say: it is worth the stop, even if only for ten minutes.
The other thing that struck me about the R62 was just how enjoyable the drive itself was. The road was great, the scenery something else and the general atmosphere in this part of the world seemed to have something special, something relaxing, one might even go as far as saying good for the soul.
