Swartberg Pass and the Little Karoo

The pass was built by prisoners in the 1880’s and opened the way from the Great Karoo to the Little Karoo for Oxen and Horse Drawn vehicles. An un-tarred road, there is a feeling that any form of major improvement such as realignment, to remove the challenging hairpins, or the laying of tar to improve comfort and speed, should be resisted to retain the character of the original road and leave it as a fascinating, though daunting, legacy of the area’s past. It was a bit of a challenge but Bob, whose turn it was to drive today, felt up to it…
We drove from De Rust and our Mercedes Vito Tourer 116CDI coped admirably with the gravel roads. Just don’t tell Avis. The views over the Little Karoo were magnificent, but the gorge on the northern side was more spectacular and we found ourselves stopping every few kilometres to look at the rock formations. There were a few other hardy tourists who braved the road beside us but Port Albert at the northern end of the pass was very quiet when we went looking for coffee and the Bush Bar, when we found it, was indeed deserted. Not yet the holiday season you see. “I get about 5 to 6 cars a day” said the lady who dispensed tickets at the Rust-en-Vrede Waterfall we had visited earlier in the day. 
The Cango Caves were busy, however, and obviously the must see attraction of the area. Four off or group elected to do the “Pansy Route” and had an hour long tour of the standard larger caves. Bob one I went for the full “Adventure Trail” and spent 90 mins. squeezing through letterbox slits, scraping ourselves along tunnels 40cm tall on our bellies, traversing 30m tunnels on our hunkers, and squeezing through the aptly named Coffin tunnel. The route was 4.5 km long and it got warmer (and sweatier) the deeper we went. We emerged wiser than we had entered, and I now know that I never want to be a Pot-holer.
Our route back to De Rust passed through another gorge, the Meiringspoort, and necessitated two stops; quirky, old-fashioned Klaarstroom Hotel for G&Ts and beer, Meiringspoort itself for another waterfall that shouldn’t be missed… More pictures but not enough to do it justice in the fading light.
Back at the House Martin Guest House we were able to eat dinner in the large, austere and slightly gloomy dinning room, but although Theresa did the cooking, she felt too distracted to join us. It was a large meal which we ate by the light of two paraffin lamps: Pea & Mint soup, Babotie with rice and very sweet pumpkin as veg., home preserved Quince in syrup with ice cream as desert, Chenin Blanc and Pinotage wines throughout. 

Night spent at  House Martin Guest House, De Rust.