The Karoo

16 March, Oudtshoorn

The Garden Route is one of SA's most popular tourist and holiday areas.

It is very nice...and very white. Excuse us, but this black-white thing is becoming really interesting.

More isolated beaches are fantastic, the hinterland ranges are out of this world, but the holiday meccas are 'Western-White-Anywhere World' beach resorts. Don't get us wrong. Many people will love places like Plettenberg Bay, Knysna and the mis-named Wilderness National Park, but we preferred Buffalo Bay and other, less-developed spots.

Today we hit the dirt again and climbed up and through the Swartberg Pass, then down to the historical town of Prince Albert. The road was just as you would expect of an old mountain pass. Rough as - and that's part of the attraction. Fantastic scenery had us stopping at every corner for a photo, but it is almost impossible to capture the real beauty of this place! This is the edge of the Karoo region, one of the real wilderness areas of SA. Mountains here are on a scale that we just don't have at home. On a beautiful day like today, we had yet another 'oh wow!' experience.