World South Africa Bontebok National Park

Marilyn and Mieke's 2006 South African Trip

Barrydale to Oudtshoorn May 22, 2006

ROBERTSON, MONTEGU, BARRYDALE We went through the towns of Robertson and Montegu, which were very attractive little towns. Along the R62 highway from Montegu, there was a long stretch where there were sheep grazing, fruit orchards, pampas grass, and shrubs. We entered the Tradouw Vallei where there were tons of orchards. Around 11:00 a.m. we stopped for lunch in Barrydale at a place called the Country Pumpkin. It was a cute small place, but the food wasn't that great. Popular lunch menu items are tomato and cheese sandwich and chicken and mayo sandwich. Mieke had the latter and it was just that, big chunks of chicken and big dollops of mayo, nothing else. The owner offered Dave a job photographing in the area for new postcards. We thought that was very cool. LADISMITH, KLEIN KAROO After lunch we were on our way again, towards Ladismith (about 50 km). We saw a big range of snow-capped mountains, the Swartberge. Dave said they don't see snow on the mountains very often, so we were fortunate. Much farther north of this area is the Great Karoo (great desert); the area we were in is called the Klein-Karoo (little desert). It is semi-arid, what we would call high desert. We arrived in Ladismith, which was a small town, still 100 km away from Oudtshoorn where we would spend the night. On the way we saw aloe plants scattered all over the hillsides and along the highway. We also saw protea, the national flower of South Africa. We stopped at one point to take pictures of the mountains and almost walked into a thornbush...it had nasty 2-inch long thorns.

Advertisment South Africa Private Tours Experience South Africa through the eyes of a local private guide! www.ToursByLocals.com