Cape Town → Route 62 → Karoo → Port Elizabeth
Here are the 30 stories you’ll meet on this journey. The history, culture and nature commentary narrated by the GPS audio guide can be read here in advance.
Cape Town
Sarah Baartman — the Slave Lodge
The building you’re passing now is a museum called the Slave Lodge today, but it was originally the quarters where enslaved people lived. Inside is the story of a woman named Sarah Baartman — a story that’s hard to forget once you’ve heard it. Sarah was a Khoikhoi woman born near the Gamtoos River in the Eastern Cape. While she was working as a servant in Cape Town, an Englishman and a Cape Town merchant approached her in 1810, luring her with the promise that she could make a lot of money in London. So she crossed the Atlantic and was put on display on London’s Piccadilly under the name ‘the Hottentot Venus’. Her body shape, which looked unfamiliar to Europeans of the time, was turned into a spectacle. British abolitionists took her case to court to try to free her, but — very likely under pressure — she told the court she had come of her own free will, and so she was never released. In 1814 she was sold to France, where she was exhibited in a similar way in Paris and even became a subject of study for Georges Cuvier, the most celebrated naturalist of the day. Then in 1815, at only about twenty-five, she died in Paris — and Cuvier dissected her body and preserved her brain and genitals as specimens. Those specimens stayed on display at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris until 1974, almost 160 years after her death. She was finally brought home and buried in 2002, after Nelson Mandela’s government formally asked the French government to return her. And, strikingly, the day of her homecoming ceremony fell on South Africa’s Women’s Day — a coincidence that stays with you once you know it.
Camissa — the hidden river beneath the city
Picture this for a moment as you drive. Right now, beneath this city, a river called ‘Camissa’ is flowing. Cape Town wasn’t built here because of the stunning view of Table Mountain. The real reason was water. Fresh spring water ran down from the mountain, and the Khoikhoi called these streams ‘sweet water’ — Camissa. In 1652, when the Dutch East India Company was looking for a place to build a supply station for ships bound for Asia, it chose this spot precisely because of this water. And amazingly, more than 370 years later, the river hasn’t disappeared. It still flows through underground channels beneath the city — near Heritage Square you can even hear the water if you listen closely to the pavement. There are even walking tours that follow the river through Victorian-era tunnels. Beneath the forest of glittering buildings, the old river that gave birth to this city is still quietly flowing — the more you think about it, the more remarkable it is, isn’t it?
Van Riebeeck’s almond hedge — Kirstenbosch
Deep inside Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden you’ll come across what looks like an ordinary hedge of trees. But this hedge hides a story more than 360 years old. In 1660, Jan van Riebeeck, the first commander of the Cape settlement, planted a dense line of wild almond trees — the bitter kind — along the settlement’s boundary, saying it would stop Khoikhoi raids and cattle theft. It looked like a defensive hedge, but in reality it was the first policy of separation, meant to push the Khoikhoi outside the colony’s land. Remarkably, some of these trees have survived to this day — more than 360 years — and still stand inside Kirstenbosch. They’re preserved as South Africa’s oldest ‘living monument’. When you stroll through this beautiful garden and suddenly come across these old, gnarled trunks, knowing that they mark the very first scene of this country’s history of racial separation may make the view look a little different.
The Castle of Good Hope — a false surrender and the Grey Lady
That star-shaped fortress, the Castle of Good Hope, is the oldest surviving building in South Africa. The Dutch East India Company built it over 13 years, from 1666 to 1679. Beneath the fort there was once a dungeon where prisoners were held, and legend has it that a secret passage led from here to the harbour — perhaps used for smuggling or secret escapes. But the fort’s most famous story is something else: the ghost of the ‘Grey Lady’. Some say she was a woman executed in the dungeon; others say she was the mistress of a 19th-century commander. The interesting thing is that it doesn’t end as an old tale — there are records of night guards reporting sightings of her to this day. Inside this fortress, more than 350 years old, someone may be about to encounter the Grey Lady at this very moment.
The 1901 plague and Ndabeni
When people think of racial segregation in South Africa — apartheid — they usually think of 1948. But attempts to push people out of the city by race began much earlier. In 1901, bubonic plague broke out in Cape Town’s harbour. The real cause, as it later turned out, was rats that arrived on cargo ships — yet the authorities wrongly blamed Black dock workers as the source of infection. Using this as a pretext, they forcibly moved all the Black residents living in town to a new settlement called ‘Ndabeni’, near Maitland. This was the first case of the township segregation policy that would continue for decades. Apartheid officially began in 1948, so this happened a full 47 years earlier. A misunderstanding caused by rats brought this city’s history of racial separation forward by almost half a century.
District Six — demolished, and never rebuilt
That wide empty lot you can see out the window may look like land where construction simply stopped, but this was once Cape Town’s liveliest neighbourhood. It was called District Six — the most diverse place in the city, where Black, Coloured, Indian and Jewish residents all lived side by side. But in 1966 the government declared this land a ‘whites-only area’. Over the next 16 years, until 1982, some 60,000 residents were forcibly removed to the Cape Flats on the city’s outskirts, and every one of their homes and buildings was demolished. Here’s the twist: the forced removals drew such strong international condemnation that even the government didn’t dare announce the white housing it had planned for the empty land. So for decades the land has remained mostly empty. The bare landscape we’re looking at is itself a scar of that violence — and, at the same time, proof that the violence never fully succeeded. Today the District Six Museum keeps the story of that neighbourhood alive.
The convict ship ‘Neptune’ affair
In 1849, the British Empire planned to use the Cape Colony as a penal colony, just as it had done with Australia. So it sent convicts to Table Bay aboard the convict ship ‘Neptune’. But the plan ran into unexpected resistance from the people of Cape Town. Merchants refused as one to supply the ship, and workers blocked the convicts from even coming ashore. For five whole months, the Neptune sat stuck in the harbour, unable to unload. In the end the British government gave in, and the convicts on board were sent on to Australia. Historians regard this as the first mass civil resistance in the city’s history — the Empire’s plan was defeated without a single shot fired, simply by refusing to cooperate.
The Noon Gun on Signal Hill
Every day at noon, a single cannon shot rings out from this hill. It startles people hearing it for the first time, but this cannon isn’t a show for tourists. When it was first installed in 1806, it had just one purpose: to let every ship anchored in the harbour set its navigation clock precisely. Today we have GPS and smartphones, but back then there was nothing of the sort. So for the whole city and every ship in port, the sound of this cannon was the official time. And amazingly, the tradition has continued for more than 200 years without missing a single day. Even now, when noon comes, the cannon will fire from that hill without fail. One of the world’s oldest time-signal traditions is carrying on right before our eyes.
Karoo inland travel briefing
Route 62: know this and you’ll be fineBriefing before you set off
This is a safe, malaria-free inland route. A few things to know in advance, though. The Swartberg Pass, which you’ll cross midway, has a 27-kilometre gravel section. Ordinary cars can normally drive it, but it may be closed after heavy snow in winter or heavy rain, so be sure to check road conditions before you set off. Caravans can’t use this section at all. Also, many of the small towns on this route have short fuel-station opening hours. The next town may be quite far away, so make it a habit to fill up at the first station you see once your gauge drops below half. Finally, in the Karoo summer, from December to February, daytime temperatures can top 40°C. We recommend avoiding that period and travelling in spring or autumn.
Worcester
A town named after an English aristocrat who never visited
The name Worcester was taken in 1820 by Lord Charles Somerset, governor of the Cape Colony, straight from a British peerage title in his family, ‘Marquess of Worcester’. It has no direct connection to Worcestershire in England. What shaped this town’s identity isn’t its name, but the fertile valley carved by the Breede River and the vineyards that grew there.
The world’s largest brandy cellar under one roof
The cellar we’re passing is known as the largest brandy storage and distillation facility in the world under a single roof. Grapes grown throughout the Breede River Valley all come here to be distilled and aged.
Robertson
A town famous for perfume as much as for wine
This town is well known as a wine town. But it has another nickname: ‘South Africa’s perfume capital’. The geranium and rose oils grown on farms in this area go in large quantities into Europe’s luxury perfume industry. Most travellers who come for wine tasting pass through without knowing that perfume ingredients grow on the same land.
The main road before the highway existed
Today it’s a quiet wine town, but until the N2 coastal highway opened in 1958, Route 62 was the only main road linking Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Robertson was a key stopover along it — a transport hub long before it became a wine region.
Montagu
A hot-spring town becomes a rock-climbing mecca
For a long time Montagu was known only for its natural hot springs. But in the late 20th century, word spread among rock climbers about the sandstone cliffs surrounding the town, and it gained a second identity. Today travellers soaking in the hot springs and climbers scaling the cliffs coexist in the same town.
Cogmanskloof
Why a narrow rocky gorge became a battlefield
This narrow gorge isn’t just a scenic drive. Until roads were built in the 19th century, it was almost the only way into the Cape interior. So during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 to 1902, whoever controlled this narrow gap in the rock controlled access to the whole interior beyond. Traces of the fighting between British and Boer forces over this pass still remain as the ruins of a small fort on the clifftop.
Barrydale
A sheep-farming town transformed into a town of galleries
For a long time Barrydale was an ordinary farming and livestock town. But in the 21st century, artists and craftspeople leaving cities like Cape Town began settling here one by one, and the main street filled with galleries and workshops, turning it into a ‘Karoo art hub’. An unexpected artists’ village appeared in the middle of a stark desert landscape.
Ladismith
A town easily confused with its war-famous namesake
This small town we’re passing was named in 1850 after the wife of Cape governor Sir Harry Smith. But there’s another town in KwaZulu-Natal also named after the Smiths — the one that became world-famous after enduring a roughly four-month siege during the Anglo-Boer War. This little Klein Karoo town, though, is spelled slightly differently in English and has nothing to do with that famous war history — it’s a quiet farming town.
Calitzdorp
Why a Portuguese grape grows better in the Karoo
Port wine is originally a speciality of Portugal’s Douro Valley. But Calitzdorp’s hot, dry Karoo climate suited those grape varieties, such as Touriga Nacional, even better. As a result this small Karoo town became the centre of South African port production, and with local wineries winning international port competitions for decades, it earned the nickname ‘the port capital of South Africa’.
Oudtshoorn
The people who built palaces with feathers
These mansions we’re passing are called ‘feather palaces’. From the late 19th to the early 20th century, demand for ostrich feathers to decorate European women’s hats exploded, and Oudtshoorn’s farmers amassed huge fortunes. It’s said that at the peak, ostrich feathers were worth about as much as their weight in gold. The farmers used that money to build these grand mansions. But around the First World War the fashion for feathers suddenly collapsed, and an industry once as precious as gold crumbled almost overnight.
Cango Caves
An underground gallery millions of years in the making
This cave is said to have been first discovered by a herdsman in 1780. Its limestone formations were carved by water over millions of years, and it’s the only show cave in Africa offering both a heritage tour and an adventure crawling tour. The deepest sections are still closed to ordinary visitors.
Swartberg Pass
A mountain road carved without dynamite
This mountain road you’re crossing was completed in 1888 and designed by a man named Thomas Bain. At the time explosives could hardly be used, so workers are said to have cut the 27-kilometre road through the cliffs almost by hand. When it was finished it was regarded as the pinnacle of South African road engineering, and nearly 140 years later its original gravel surface is still maintained and preserved as a national monument.
Prince Albert
A single spring creates orchards in the desert
This town is surrounded on all sides by the dry Karoo, yet inside it’s full of orchards and olive farms. The secret is the spring water flowing down from the Swartberg mountains. When settlers found this spring around 1762 and settled here, a small farming oasis appeared in the middle of the desert.
A farming town becomes an artists’ refuge
In the late 20th century, artists leaving big cities like Cape Town began settling one by one in this quiet Karoo town. The streets, where 19th-century Cape Dutch buildings still stood, have now become a small artists’ village full of galleries and craft shops. Much like Barrydale, which we passed earlier, the story of ‘a farming town turned art town’ repeats itself all over the Karoo.
Graaff-Reinet
More than 200 18th-century homes in the middle of the desert
Founded in 1786, Graaff-Reinet is the fourth-oldest town in South Africa. Its remote location in the middle of the Karoo actually shielded it from development pressure, so more than 200 Cape Dutch buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries have been preserved almost intact. It’s considered the town with the highest concentration of national heritage buildings in South Africa.
Camdeboo National Park (Valley of Desolation)
A ‘desolate’ landscape true to its name — the skeleton once buried underground
This valley’s name means the ‘Valley of Desolation’. It was named for how bleak it is — yet that very bleakness became the decisive appeal that led to it being declared South Africa’s 22nd national park in 2005. The giant rock pillars you see now were once completely buried underground. Between 100 and 200 million years ago, magma seeped into cracks underground and cooled into very hard dolerite. Over the tens of millions of years since, rain and wind wore away only the softer surrounding rock, leaving this hard skeleton standing as towering columns.
Mountain Zebra National Park
A park created for zebras of which only a handful remained
When the park was declared in 1937, the Cape mountain zebra was on the brink of extinction, with only a handful left in the world because of hunting and the spread of farmland. The park was created solely to protect this one species, and after nearly 90 years of conservation, the population has recovered to several hundred. Predators such as lions and cheetahs have since been reintroduced too, so what was originally a zebra reserve has grown into a small Big Five safari park. Right — shall we head for the last national park on this route, Addo?
Addo Elephant National Park
From just 11 to 600 — the story of the elephants that survived a massacre
This park’s elephants started with just 11 animals in 1931. Between 1919 and 1920, a single hunter hired by the government shot more than 100 elephants in this area, on the grounds that they were raiding farmland. The park was created in 1931 precisely to protect those last survivors, and some 90 years later their descendants number more than 600. But perhaps because of the memory of that terrible hunt, it’s said that Addo’s elephants are more sensitive and skittish around vehicles and people than elephants elsewhere.
A fence made of lift cables that even elephants can’t break
This fence looks ordinary, but it’s actually a special fence that even elephants can’t break through. Elephants are so strong that they easily smashed ordinary wire fences and escaped. In 1954, park warden Graham Armstrong devised a special fence made from recycled old lift (elevator) cables — and it proved so remarkably effective that today, as the ‘Addo fence’, it’s used almost as a standard in elephant reserves around the world. An invention born of necessity became a global standard.
Port Elizabeth
“Never build anything on this spot” — one man’s lasting proof of love
This pyramid was built by a governor for his wife, who died young. In the 1820s, Sir Rufane Donkin, acting governor of the Cape, named this city after his wife Elizabeth, who had died of fever in India. He built a pyramid-shaped memorial on a hill overlooking the harbour, and had an inscription carved asking that no building should ever block the view from this spot. Almost 200 years later the promise is still kept, and the harbour view from the pyramid is just as it was then.
67 artworks, 67 years of struggle — a tribute that became the whole city
For the 2010 World Cup, the city installed 67 public artworks around the centre to honour the 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted to the struggle — from his work as a lawyer to his term as president. It’s simply called ‘Route 67’. Just walking this city means following Mandela’s life. This is the end of our Garden Route journey — you’ve driven 800 kilometres with us.
Drive this road yourself
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