Cape l'Agulhas Overland Tour - "The Foot of Africa"
Day 1: Cape Town to Struisbaai.
Travel to the popular holiday resort of Strand and follow the beach road past holiday apartments and restaurants to the small port and resort of Gordon's Bay. Follow the False Bay coastline past several picnic spots to Hermanus - best land based whale watching platform in the world.
Continue past the prawn flats to intercept the road that takes you to the tiny mission village of Elim. Wander down the main street between the tiny thatched cottages to the beautifully restored church. Visit the old mill before enjoying a light lunch in the restored bakery behind the church.
Drive along the country roads and past the many marshes until a number of lovely white-washed fishermen's cottages welcome you to the to the coastal resort of Struisbaai. Book in at your guest house and relax. You may even want to take your shoes off and walk in the shallow water along the beach.
With not much light pollution, the southern night skies seem to hold tenfold more stars than before. A stroll along the beach after dinner, with just the sound of the sea, is a wonderful way to end to the day.
Day 2: Struisbaai to Swellendam.
After breakfast, follow the coastline to Cape l'Agulhas - the southernmost point of the African continent. Join the elite club of people who have visited and photographed this spot, where a plinth and sign indicate the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Backtrack a kilometer or so to visit the Cape Agulhas lighthouse which has been sending out it's warning signal to mariners since 1848. Climb the inside winding stairway right to the top for a spectacular view - if you dare! We leave and, weather permitting, take the farm road short-cut to the coastal fishing village of Waenhuiskrans/Arniston. Time for tea or coffee and thereafter a walking tour of this fishing community of "Plankiesbaai", guided by one of the fisherman's wives.
Drive to Bredasdorp for a visit to the shipwreck museum portraying the history of the multitude of shipwrecks and displaying it's collection of salvaged items.
Lunch break in Bredasdorp with a few small but adequate restaurants within walking distance to choose from. Travel to Swellendam, where we leave our luggage at our lodgings, and drive to the entrance of the Bontebok National park. A slow drive through the park should enable us to see the protected Bontebok antelope species, some Red Hartebeest antelope and, if we are lucky, Grey Rheebok. A number of zebra's also roam the park and we might even catch a glimpse of the elusive Secretary bird with it's quill pen stuck behind the ear. Pay a visit to the camping site next to the Breede River which runs through the park where the giant mountain tortoises are often to be seen.
Leave the park to arrive in Swellendam by late afternoon.
Dinner at our comfortable guest house in this 18th century pioneer town.
Day 3: Swellendam to Montagu.
After a leisurely breakfast you can explore the museum at leisure. It comprises the old "Drostdy", a re-created trades yard with wagon shop, coppersmith shop, operating water-mill, and much more. Visit the nearby old Dutch Reformed Church in Gothic and Cape-Dutch style mix, as well as several other well-restored buildings of a bygone era. All too soon we have to leave. The road leads through Buffeljagsfontein and the mission village of Suurbraak through the Langeberg Mountains via the Tradouw Pass into the Little Karoo to intercept the R62 route leading to Montagu.
Book in at our accommodation and enjoy an optional lunch at one of the farmstalls.
You now have the option of relaxing at the Spa baths, or taking an hour-long stroll through the ravine to the Spa, where everyone will be picked up in the late afternoon and taken back to their accommodation. Dinner in the Motagu hotel or at a venue close by.
Day 4: Montagu to Cape Town.
Carry on past Robertson to stop at "Kleinplasie", an open-air living museum near Worcester, where a number of the former crafts of bread baking, horseshoe making and the distilling of that potent product "witblits", (white lightning), are still demonstrated.
Opportunity for lunch and browsing until our departure to reach Cape Town via the original Du Toitskloof Pass by late afternoon.
| Price pp. sharing: Price available on request |
| Included | Dinner bed & breakfast, entrances, tastings, lunch on Day 1 |
| Excluded | lunches not specifically included |
| Departure time: | 08h30 |
| Time of return: | 17h30 |
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