A spectacular journey over the mountains from George to Cape Town

The International Mineral Processing Congress  and MEI's Process Mineralogy '26 and Critical Minerals '26 are only 5 month's away (posting of 18th May) and there will be many for whom this will be a first visit to South Africa and the beautiful Western Cape region.

I hope that you will stay on after any of these events to sample what this amazing country has to offer. Staying on in Cape Town is a good choice, but if you would like to take a truly memorable experience home with you, I can recommend a 6 day (minimum) spectacular drive from George, over the mountains via two scenic mountain passes, the Karoo desert, a quirky old town, and some of the finest wine districts. Barbara and I have travelled this route several times and recommend it as a great South African 'taster'. 

The town of George is 435 km from Cape Town, but there are regular one-hour flights from Cape Town International Airport to the airport at George, and cars can be rented from here. Because of the easily accessible airport, George is often regarded as the start of the famous Garden Route, the N2 motorway taking you east to the resorts of Wilderness, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay. This is a favourite tourist route but I find it personally underwhelming as the famous route is mostly just the N2 highway, and large parts are inland, suburban, forested, or commercial rather than constantly scenic ocean views. Over-development has changed the feel in some areas. Locals and environmental groups frequently complain that estate developments, road traffic, and urban sprawl are eroding the old "untouched paradise" image.

Travelling inland from George is, however, an overwhelming experience.

After a first night in George, the drive between George and Oudtshoorn is one of the classic short scenic road trips in South Africa’s Garden Route region. It is only about 60 km and usually takes 45-60 minutes. Heading north on the N12 a gradual climb leads to the Outeniqua Pass, a winding mountain road through the dramatic Outeniqua Mountains, with great viewpoints over valleys and mountains.

Barbara, Amanda and Jon on the Outeniqua Pass, 1982

Then there is a sudden landscape shift to green mountains and the dry semi-desert Karoo leading to Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of the world. The town built its wealth in the late 1800s and early 1900s on the ostrich feather boom and even today visitors are welcomed to some of the large ostrich farms around the town.

Oudtshoorn

A short detour from Oudtshoorn is to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, renowned for its cheetah conservation, operating one of the world’s largest cheetah breeding centres and maintaining some of the highest survival rates for cubs globally.

The nearby Cango Caves is one of South Africa’s most famous natural attractions. The massive limestone cave system contains dramatic stalactites and chambers and options range from easy guided walks to adventure crawling routes.

Cango Wildlife Ranch and Cango Caves, 1982

I would recommend an overnight stop in Oudtsdoorn and then the next day keep fingers crossed that the R328 to Prince Albert is open as the Swartberg Pass is one of the most famous mountain roads in South Africa, a dramatic gravel pass crossing the Swartberg Mountains. It is widely considered one of the great scenic drives in the country. The southern Oudtshoorn side climbs gradually through red rock formations and then becomes steeper near the summit at 1580m. The northern side descending toward Prince Albert is the most dramatic, with classic zigzags and sheer drops, but despite the exposure, most of the pass is manageable in a normal car in dry weather if driven slowly and carefully.

Swartberg Pass, 1997

Built in the 1880s the pass is considered an engineering masterpiece because it was constructed largely by hand using dry-stone retaining walls, which have survived more than a century of weather, floods, and mountain conditions.

Swartberg Pass, 2008, showing dry stone retaining walls

If the Swartberg Pass is closed due to bad weather, the best alternative from Oudtshoorn is the N12 to De Rust through Meiringspoort, which is also spectacular, and then the R407 to Prince Albert, a great place for a third overnight stop. Prince Albert is known for its well-preserved Cape Dutch and Victorian architecture and has developed a reputation for quality food. There is an abundance of accommodation from historic guesthouses to farm-style cottages and we have always stayed overnight at the Dennehof Karoo Guest House, set in a restored 19th-century homestead.

Prince Albert

The next day is a leisurely 160 km drive from Prince Albert to Matjiesfontein, a classic Great Karoo road trip through some of the most open, quiet, and scenic semi-desert landscapes in the Western Cape, where wild flowers suddenly bloom after heavy rain.

Wild flowers in the Great Karoo

The R407 leads to the N1 motorway and on to the little village of Matjiesfontein, an historic village, known for its well-preserved Victorian architecture and railway heritage. Founded in the late 19th century, it gained prominence as a fashionable health resort and a key stop on the Cape’s main railway line (the famous Blue Train makes its only stop here on route to Pretoria from Cape Town). 

It's definitely worth spending a night here at the historic Lord Milner Hotel in the centre of the village. The Lord Milner is part hotel, part museum-piece, and part old colonial time capsule.

The Lord Milner Hotel, 2008

The London bus village tour and a great pub atmosphere in the hotel

Back on the N1 the drive from Matjiesfontein to Worcester is one of the classic Western Cape transitions, leaving the stark, open Karoo and gradually descending into fertile wine country framed by dramatic mountains.

Wine country near Worcester

Worcester is the gateway to the wine districts and from here you can explore the Robertson, Paarl and Stellenbosch wine routes, but if time is limited I recommend taking the road to Franschhoek, one of the most beautiful towns, with some of the best restaurants in South Africa. One of our favourites is La Petite Ferme, with its stunning views of the Franschhoek Valley, but there are many wine estates with fabulous views and food.

La Petite Ferme, 2008

Lunch at Mont Rochelle Estate, 2009

When you feel the time is right to leave Franschhoek, I suggest a great full day journey back to Cape Town via three short stops. Leave Franschhoek on the R45 towards Paarl then take the R310 towards Stellenbosch, but shortly after joining the R310 drop into Boschendal, one of the country's most famous and historic wine estates, dating back to 1685. Boschendal is a great place to stop for morning coffee, or for wine tasting under the shade of the oak trees.

The Manor House at Boschendal

Wine tasting, 2008

Back on the road, the R310 takes you to the second oldest town in South Africa, Stellenbosch. Founded in 1679, Stellenbosch is best known for its Cape Dutch architecture, oak-lined streets and its main avenue, Dorp Street, which is often called a "museum street" because the architecture and urban layout are preserved so well that the entire street functions like a walk-able exhibition of centuries of town history. It's also a great place to eat before moving on to the last stage of our journey.

Dorp Street, Stellenbosch

Take the R44 south from Stellenbosch to Somerset West and then exit toward Lourensford Road to the Vergelegen Wine Estate, one of the standout destinations in the Cape Winelands. It is famous for its heritage gardens and preserved Cape Dutch architecture and for its fine wines.

Vergelegen

From Vergelegen it is only about 30-40 minutes to Cape Town International Airport, and to Cape Town itself a further 30 minutes or so, along the N2. The end of a fantastic journey, which I am sure you will never forget. I rate it the best road journey in South Africa, but if you have other ideas please let us know.

#MEIBlog

Cape Town's beautiful Constantia Valley

The Constantia Valley Wine District is one of South Africa’s most historic and picturesque wine-producing regions and is located just a 15 minute drive from MEI's conference venue, the Vineyard Hotel. Lying on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain and extending towards False Bay, cool ocean breezes and fertile soils create ideal conditions for viticulture and it is a wonderful place in which to just relax after an MEI Conference. The views of vineyards against Table Mountain are some of the most iconic in South African wine tourism.

Founded in 1685 by Simon van der Stel, then Governor of the Cape Colony, Constantia is the oldest wine-producing region in South Africa and the original estate is Groot Constantia.

Groot Constantia

Barbara, Amanda, Will and I spent 6 days at Silvermist Organic Wine Estate, the highest wine farm in the Valley. with  a stunning location overlooking Table Mountain National Park and the Atlantic Ocean.

Silvermist

The Constantia Valley is great place just to relax, walk some of the hiking trails and enjoy fine food, nowhere better than at the estate with the unpronounceable name, Buitenverwachting.

Silvermist

Silvermist

Steenberg

Constantia Nek

Enjoying the sea breeze at nearby Hout Bay

I would highly recommend Constantia as a great place to chill out after a Vineyard conference. There is no real need to rent a car, as Uber will get you around cheaply and safely.

Exploring Mpumalanga

South Africa is one of the most beautiful and geographically diverse countries on earth, and there are many options for exploring after an MEI Conference in Cape Town. 

One of the country’s most interesting and beautiful regions is Mpumalanga, formerly the Eastern Transvaal. Mpumalanga (Zulu name for "the place where the sun rises") is a province in eastern South Africa, bordering the nations of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Mozambique. It lies north of KwaZulu-Natal (see posting of 25 November 2024) and in the northeast the land rises towards the peaks of the Drakensberg mountains and then terminates in an immense escarpment. In some places this escarpment plunges hundreds of metres down to the low-lying area known as the Lowveld.

After MEI Conferences in Cape Town in 2009, Barbara and I flew from Cape Town to Mpumalanga's capital Nelspruit (now Mbombela), rented a car and based ourselves at Sabie, from where we could easily explore the main attractions of the province, particularly the Panorama Route, a scenic road that connects many natural and cultural attractions, and ends at the border of Mpumalanga and the Limpopo province. 

There are more waterfalls around Sabie than anywhere else in Southern Africa so it is worth spending a few days visiting some of them and hiking some of the trails leading to them.

Only 9 km from Sabie on the old tarred road is the Lone Creek Falls, only a short walk through a beautiful indigenous forest. The waterfall has been declared a National Monument, and reaches 68 m.

The Horseshoe Falls are also along the Sabie River and although not very high, they have been declared a national monument.

Lone Creek and Horseshoe Falls

Further north, on the Mac-Mac River, the Mac-Mac Falls plunges 70 m into a deep pool, and can be approached by a 2km walk from the Mac-Mac Pools.

Mac-Mac Falls

Just off the Panorama Route are the  Berlin and Lisbon falls. 

Berlin Falls cascade from the centre of a sheer cliff that stands roughly 80m tall. Berlin Falls gets its name from miners who ventured to South Africa from Europe during the gold rush, and named each waterfall in the region after their home towns, or places from their home countries.

Berlin Falls

Nearby is Mpumulanga's highest waterfall, at 94 m, the Lisbon Falls, one of the most dramatic and scenic waterfalls in the region, situated on a tributary of the Blyde River.

Lisbon Falls

Relaxing by the Blyde River

A short distance east of the Berlin and Lisbon Falls is God's Window, which has inspired and awed thousands of painters and photographers from all over the world. A very steep stepped footpath along the edge of the escarpment leads to the actual view points, where the cliffs plunge down 700m, with views over the Lowveld to the Kruger National Park and towards the Lebombo Mountains on South Africa’s border with Mozambique.

God's Window

The Blyde River Canyon is the 3rd largest canyon in the world, after the Grand Canyon and Namibia's Fish River Canyon.  It begins 35km from God's Window at the bizarre natural water features of Borke's Luck Potholes, one of South Africa's major tourist attractions. They are the result of thousands of years of swirling eddies of water where the Treur River meets the Blyde River, the tumult of which has caused extensive water erosion,

Blyde River Canyon and Borke's Potholes

Perhaps saving the best to last, the Panorama Route end with the Three Rondavels, three round mountains with slightly pointed tops, very similar to the traditional round or oval African homesteads called rondavels. The viewpoint is spectacular, looking over the canyon to the Three Rondavels on the other side of the northern edges of the Drakensberg range of mountains. 

The Three Rondavels tower approximately 700 metres over the surrounding countryside and their distinctive shapes are the result of erosion, soft, underlying stone being whittled and washed away by the weather, leaving the tougher slate and quartzite layers visible.

Mpumalanga is not only beautiful, it also has a rich mining history. Gold was discovered in the province in 1883 in the mountains surrounding what is now Barberton, well worth a visit although 100km south of Sabie. The town is set in a basin surrounded by the oldest mountains in the world. The Mkhonjwa Mountains date back 3.5 billion years, with some of the oldest exposed rocks, volcanic in origin, known as the Barberton Greenstone Belt. A bacterial micro-fossil, the first form of life on earth, was found here and has been identified as being 3.2 billion years old.

Gold was found  here in 1883, and in 1884 Graham Barber discovered an incredibly rich gold reef, which created the famous 'Barberton boom' as miners flocked to the area.  Gold was also discovered in the hills above Barberton, and in 1885 the Sheba Reef Gold Mining Company was formed. The Sheba mine is still in operation, the oldest and richest gold mine in South Africa. However Barberton flourished for only a brief period, as in 1886 the Australian prospector George Harrison stumbled upon the giant Witwatersrand gold-bearing reef, which made all other deposits pale into insignificance. The miners moved on to the new town of Johannesburg, and South Africa's 20th century world dominance in gold mining had begun.

Barberton

The first large-scale production of gold began when alluvial deposits were discovered at Pilgrim’s Rest. After it was officially declared a gold field in September 1873, the town suddenly grew,  but In the 1880s the alluvial gold dwindled and prospectors were attracted to Barberton's newly discovered gold deposits.

Pilgrim's Rest is certainly worth visiting as it is only 35 km north of Sabie. Now a restored gold mining town museum it is peaceful and photogenic but in 1873 1500 diggers worked 4000 claims in grueling and unhygienic conditions.  Many of them died from malaria and dysentery after arduous treks through the Lowveld, some passing over the giant gold reef which slumbered under their feet, and would be woken a decade later.

If all this isn't enough to encourage you to visit Mpumulanga, Kruger National Park, one of Africa's largest game reserves, is only 87 km away from Sabie (see Travels in Limpopo).

Letaba River, Kruger National Park

Oliphants River, Kruger National Park

Relaxing in Kwazulu-Natal's Drakensberg Mountains

After this month's Process Mineralogy '24 and Critical Minerals '24 conferences, Barbara and I took the morning flight to Durban, rented a car and drove to the Drakensberg Sun Resort in the heart of KwaZulu-Natal's Drakensberg mountains. The Drakensberg Mountains, meaning 'Dragon Mountains' in Afrikaans, are the highest mountains in South Africa, ranging up to 3,482 m (11,422 ft) in height on the border between Lesotho and Kwazulu-Natal. The Drakensberg is part of the Great Escarpment and separates the extensive high plateaus of the South African interior from the lower lands along the coast and is the main watershed of South Africa, the source of the Orange and Vaal Rivers to the west and the Tugela to the east.

The Drakensberg Sun Resort is situated within the beautiful Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park adjacent to the impressive Cathkin Peak and is a great place to relax and just enjoy the scenery and the many hiking trails. 

Cathkin Peak

Some of the snakes to look out for in the hotel grounds
Can you spot the common error in some of the descriptions?

KwaZulu-Natal is a beautiful province, but it also has much military history, formerly being the British colony of Natal and adjacent Zululand. The province saw some bloody battles in the Anglo-Boer War, and during the Anglo-Zulu war, but prior to these wars, the Boers, trekking from British oppression in the Cape, encountered Zulu armies when trying to head towards the coast. At Blood River a replica laager of 64 life-size bronze wagons stands on the site where on December 16th, 1838, a 464 man-strong Boer commando defeated a Zulu army of between 15,000 and 20,000. The Boers made a solemn vow to God that should they survive the battle, Afrikaners would hold the day sacred in perpetuity. 3000 Zulu, armed only with spears, were killed, and no Boers died, leading to the myth that the Afrikaners were God’s chosen people!

At Blood River in 2006

Forty years later the most humiliating defeat in British military history took place on January 22nd 1879, when virtually an entire force of 1700 men was obliterated at Isandlwana by Zulu warriors armed with spears. The battlefield remains unspoiled and unchanged, apart from the graves of those who died.

Approaching Isandlwana in 2006

Isandlwana

Inspired by their victory, 4000 Zulus, part of a reserve force, launched an attack on the mission station at Rorke’s Drift, across the Buffalo River in Natal. Of the contingent of 139 men at Rorke’s Drift, 35 were seriously ill. The battle raged through the night, until the Zulus retreated at dawn. Only 17 British soldiers died, and 11 VCs were awarded, more than any other battle in history.

Most people have heard of the battle of Rorke's Drift, due to the 1964 film, Zulu, one of the biggest box-office hits of all time in the UK, but Cy Endfield’s film was actually shot 90 miles south-west of Rorke’s Drift in the Royal Natal National Park, a one hour drive from the Drakensberg Sun, with many excellent hiking trails. It was chosen as the location as it had the far more mountainous and picturesque Drakensberg Amphitheatre as a backdrop, rather than the low hills at the real site of the battle.

Rorke's Drift

The movie was shot in the dry season to make use of the deep blue sky contrasting with  the red coats of the British soldiers, but November is the rainy season so when we visited the Royal Natal Park, the Amphitheater was covered in cloud, but the surrounding scenery was nothing less than magnificent.

The 1964 Zulu movie with the Amphitheatre backdrop

Crossing the Tugela River

Although our ancient knees would have precluded us from attempting it even on a clear day, there is a classic hike to the summit of the Amphitheatre from where the Tugela River cascades 948 metres, making the Tugela Falls the world's 2nd tallest waterfall after Angel Falls in Venezuela. However in 2016 a Czech scientific expedition took new measurements, making the falls 983 m and so the world's tallest! Angel Falls, however, is almost universally regarded as having the tallest single uninterrupted drop of any waterfall in the world (the total height of Tugela Falls, even though possibly the tallest on Earth, is divided into five smaller tiers, its tallest individual tier being 411 m.

It was a wonderful day out in the National Park, even if this was the only view that we had from the Tugela River looking towards the Amphitheatre!

If you would like to visit KwaZulu-Natal after an MEI Conference, please contact our conference agent, Rene Simpson (simpsontours@gmail.com), who will organise this for you.

See also Mountains and Battlefields in KwaZulu-Natal