Route 62 · part 4

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Oudtshoorn

   Oudtshoorn owes its elegant sandstone buildings to the feathers of a very large and bad-tempered bird. In the years before the First World War, ostrich feathers were fashionable in Europe and America, and farmers in the Little Karoo made fortunes supplying them. Merchants built grand houses known as feather palaces, with fine stonework and ornate interiors, and some of them still stand. The boom collapsed around 1914, when fashion changed and the war disrupted trade, but ostrich farming continues, now for meat, leather and tourism.

   Read the complete Oudtshoorn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Oudtshoorn is where the day begins. Next is Kareedouw.

2. 2. Kareedouw

   Kareedouw is a farm town in the folds of the Eastern Cape, and its quiet is the first thing a rider notices after the long road. It lies on Route 62, the scenic alternative to the N2 coastal highway, in a valley between the Tsitsikamma and Kouga mountains, about forty kilometres inland from the coast near Humansdorp. The surrounding land is a patchwork of orchards, with apples and pears grown in the long valley called the Langkloof, and in spring the white and pink blossom turns the slopes into a soft cloud. In late summer and autumn the fruit is picked, and trucks carry it down to the packhouses.

   Read the complete Kareedouw write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kareedouw comes up about 228 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gqeberha.

3. 3. Gqeberha

   Gqeberha is the name that Port Elizabeth took in 2021, an isiXhosa word usually linked to the Gqeberha River, the stream that runs into Algoa Bay. The change still divides opinion, and you will hear both names on the street, but the city that carries them is the same big, breezy, workmanlike place on the Eastern Cape coast. It forms the heart of the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area, with a car industry that has employed generations, a port, and a waterfront of long pale beaches that seem to go on forever.

   Read the complete Gqeberha write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 361 km into the recorded legs you reach Gqeberha. Next is back through Kareedouw.

4. 4. back through Kareedouw

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kareedouw write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Kareedouw, about halfway. Next is back through Oudtshoorn.

5. 5. back through Oudtshoorn

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Oudtshoorn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Oudtshoorn sits at 492 km, about halfway. Next is back through Barrydale.

6. 6. back through Barrydale

   The R62 through Barrydale is a road of long distances and small surprises. The town is a modest place, sitting in the Little Karoo between the Langeberg and the Swartberg ranges, a few tidy streets, a main road, and a population of a few thousand. It was founded as a farming settlement, and its economy still depends on fruit, olives, sheep and now, increasingly, on travellers on Route 62 who stop for a meal and some air.

   Read the complete Barrydale write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Barrydale comes up about 898 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Montagu.

7. 7. back through Montagu

   Montagu sits where the Little Karoo begins, in a fold of the Langeberg mountains, and the way you reach it is part of the charm. From the west, the road runs through Cogmanskloof, a narrow gorge with a short tunnel, and then the valley opens into a landscape of orchards, vineyards and red rock. The little town, with about fifteen thousand people, lines up along Long Street with Cape Dutch and Victorian houses, many carefully restored, and it has been a favourite weekend stop for people from Cape Town for decades.

   Read the complete Montagu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 960 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Montagu. Next is Cape Town.

8. 8. Cape Town

   Cape Town sits at the foot of Table Mountain, a flat-topped sandstone wall about a kilometre high, and on a day when the tablecloth of cloud spills over the edge it is one of the great sights of the world. The city lies between the mountain and the Atlantic, with a harbour that was founded in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company as a supply station for ships on the route to the East. It grew into a port of many cultures, and the mix of Dutch, Malay, African and British influences is still visible in its food, language and architecture.

   Read the complete Cape Town write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Cape Town. That is the ride.