Along Route 62 in South Africa’s Cape province you’ll climb breathtaking mountain passes. Kogmanskloof Pass is particularly gorgeous. Dip down into lush green valleys and meander past tracks of golden grasslands where ostriches roam under big blue skies.
Route 62 meanders through quaint towns with perfectly preserved 18th-century Cape Dutch-style architecture. Tiny Montagu is one of the quaintest. Founded in 1851, the immaculate, whitewashed Cape Dutch-style houses on its main street are now home to artists and other escapees.
Running roughly parallel to the Garden Route but further north, Route 62 makes an excellent alternate east-west route across the bottom third of the country. Try taking one route on the way out of Cape Town and the other on the return.
The farming service center town of Worcester, about an hour east of Cape Town, is the official start of the Route 62. It’s well worth stopping to visit the Kleinplasie Living Open Air Museum, which tells the region’s agricultural history through living exhibits.
While at the Kleinplasie Living Open Air Museum don’t skip a visit to the museum shop. Here you can sample and buy various flavors of the 60-proof witblits (white lightning), a traditional Boer spirit distilled from fruit. To get the full taste, first inhale then sip and roll the liquor around your mouth before swallowing and exhaling.
With more than 50 trademarks for sale, brandy could be considered South Africa’s national spirit. The 330-year-old South African brandy industry has a reputation for producing outstanding batches of the alcoholic sweet nectar, distilled from only grapes and left to mature in French oak barrels for at least three years. Brandy tasting is as popular as wine tasting along Route 62, which is home to multiple brandy-specific cellars. In Worcester visit KWV House of Brandy, the largest cellar of its kind in the world with around 120 copper pots under one roof.
Robertson should be your next Route 62 stop. It is the center for one of the largest wine-growing areas in the country and home to around 30 different vineyards. My favorite is Van Louvern, where tastings take place in the garden surrounded by trees planted for historical events, good and bad, including the day Mandela was released from prison. Besides spectacular grounds, this place has a different take on tastings. You’ll pick the wines you want to try and be brought the entire bottle. You can choose as many bottles, and pour as much as you’d like.
At the Avalon Springs Hotel in Montagu, the hot mineral spring pools are known for their healing properties. They can be reached two ways: drive up and park in the lot, or hike in via the easy, 2.2-kilometer Lover’s Lane Trail, which starts at the car park at the end of Barry Street.
At the eastern end of Route 62 you’ll see a turnoff to Sanbona Game Reserve, which is big-five safari country. The 54,000-hectare park is also home to ancient rock art, the only free-roaming white lions in the world and three luxury safari lodges.
Another perfectly preserved Cape Dutch town, McGregor is located at the end of a road to nowhere and feels like it’s lost in another century. Home to artists and other bohemian types, it is also a great base for exploring the region’s excellent hiking trails and nature reserves.
