Clanwilliam lies in the Olifants River valley, about two hundred kilometres north of Cape Town, at the foot of the Cederberg, a rugged range of orange and red sandstone that rises abruptly from the dry plain. It is a small, sleepy town and a good place to stop for the night, with whitewashed Cape Dutch houses on the old main street, a dam on the river that is popular for sailing and a long tradition of farming, citrus, vegetables and above all rooibos tea. The tea bush grows almost nowhere else in the world except in this region, and the farms around the town process the leaves, which are bruised, left to oxidise and dried in the sun.
The town was founded in 1808 and named after an Irish earl, father-in-law of the then governor of the Cape, which makes it one of the oldest in the country. The Cederberg itself is famous for its rock formations, with arches, pinnacles and a Maltese cross standing in the desert, and for the San rock paintings found in caves, some thousands of years old. The rare Clanwilliam cedar, a conifer that grows only on the highest slopes of these mountains, gives the range its name.
For riders, the Cederberg offers scenery that changes by the hour. The N7 north from Cape Town is a straight, fast highway, and beyond Clanwilliam the roads into the mountains, such as the route over the Pakhuis Pass, wind through stunning rock country, though some of the secondary roads are gravel and can be corrugated or loose, so check conditions with locals and take care. Wind can be strong in the valley, and the summer sun is fierce, with temperatures above thirty-five degrees on many days, so start early and carry water.
Fuel is available in Clanwilliam, a place with several stations and a few shops, and it is wise to fill up here before heading into the mountains, where there is none. In late August and September the wildflowers appear in the valley, a reason to come in spring. Winters are cold at night in the mountains and can bring snow to the peaks.