Through golden sunlands
Discover quaint villages, natural treasures and historical sights in the Camdeboo. Set aside two days for this circular route around the Graaff-Reinet region.
Botanist and author Eve Palmer, a native of the Camdeboo, described her world as “a country flooded by sun”. It’s a great description of the treeless plains between the Sneeuberg mountains in the north and the Grootrivier mountains in the south.
It’s also where the Murray missionary family found fertile soil for sowing the seeds of the Dutch Reformed Church. Quite a number of towns in the Camdeboo have the Murrays and their contribution to the religious revival in the 19th century to thank for their beautiful churches.
Around 200 million years before the dawn of man, mammal-like reptiles made their home in marshes of the Camdeboo. Yes, it was a wetland once. Fossils discovered here point to animal species that didn’t follow quite the same evolutionary path as the dinosaurs, but rather became the ancient ancestors of all warm-blooded animals.
There are are two circular routes here: each takes about eight hours and together they will add 800 km to your vehicle’s odometer – 500 km of which are dirt roads. One route takes you through the mountains and hills of the northern Camdeboo, and the other leads you across the southern plains.
On these two contrasting routes, you will pay an exorbitant price for a statue of an owl, drive through a ghost town inhabited by monkeys, and cross the historic Sundays River 11 times.
Pack meatballs and hard-boiled eggs in an empty ice-cream container, fasten your seat belt and join us on back roads flooded by sun.
THE FIRST DAY of this two-day route starts at Graaff-Reinet. Drive north on the N9 highway, cross the Sundays River and then over three mountain passes: the Perrieshoogte, Goliathskraal and Paardekloof passes. On these three tarred passes you have beautiful views over the northern Camdeboo with its Sneeuberg mountains.
About 27 km north of Graaff-Reinet, be on the lookout for the turn-off to Nieu Bethesda. Here you’ll find a road sign welcoming you to the Owl Route. On the left of the road is a series of hills called the Loskoppe, and to the right is the farm Wellwood, which has been owned by the Rubidge family since 1838. The current owners, Marion and Robert Rubidge, are an excellent source of information about the area and they have several cottages in case you want to stay overnight. There’s also a fossil museum on Wellwood where you can view the bones of those mammal-like reptiles. Visit wellwood.co.za for more information.
After about 25 km, you descend through a poort down the slope of the Toringberg and drive across the Gats River into Nieu Bethesda. The town shares its name with a biblical pool near Jerusalem and was named so by Reverend Charles Murray, son of Andrew Murray (Jnr), also a reverend, when he came to establish a Dutch Reformed church here in 1875.
Martins Street takes you into the town, and on the corner of Martins and Hudson Streets you will find the Owl House, home of the late sculptor Helen Martins. Miss Helen, as she was known in the town, filled her backyard with eccentric sculptures of people, camels and other animals, but especially owls, who stare at you with wide eyes. The playwright Athol Fugard, who also lived in this town, immortalised the sculptor’s unconventional life in the play (and later a film) The Road to Mecca.
You pay R70 to walk through her sculpture garden and strange house – and it’s definitely worth a visit. Drop in every day between 09:00 and 16:45.
Outside are stalls where you can buy imitations of Miss Helen and her faithful worker, Koos Malgas’ owls. The average price of R300 may seem somewhat excessive, but as these are the only source of income for the street vendors their sales are much needed after the long absence of visitors during lockdown.
There are a number of restaurants and guest houses in Nieu Bethesda, and if you want to camp, head to the Zonnenstrahl campsite in Pienaar Street (on the far side of the Gats River). This campsite has a lovely lawn, and a quince-tree lane ensures privacy between your off-road caravan and the art gallery across the street. Call Elise on 073 833 2017 if you want to stay overnight.
Drive back out of town the way you entered, and shortly after the bridge over the Gats River, turn right (S31.88580 E24.55687) to the Uitkyk Pass. This is the first dirt road on the route (all the dirt roads in these regions are relatively good with only a few eroded sections to traverse). You should be able to master it in a sedan provided you drive carefully, but note that city tyres will be shredded if you drive too fast. After it has rained – as it had during our visit – there’ll be plenty of mud that can catch you out if you don’t have four-wheel drive to get you through.
The road winds uphill and crosses the Bloukrans River three times over low-water bridges until you reach a T-junction (S31.96384 E24.39727). A road sign directs you to turn left to Graaff-Reinet and right to Richmond.
Turn right here and drive 5,6 km north, then turn left (S31.91818 E24.39295). If you’re worried about getting lost, simply follow the road signs to Richmond at every fork in the road. After about 90 km after leaving Nieu Bethesda, join the R388 regional road. Here you turn left and drive 1 km in the direction of Graaff-Reinet to the AP2404 turn-off (S31.77446 E24.06424) and
The road winds uphill and crosses the Bloukrans River three times over low-water bridges
follow the farm road to Murraysburg.
This town was founded by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1855 and was named after Reverend Andrew Murray, father of Charles Murray and son of Andrew Murray (Snr) who was sent from Scotland to do missionary work for the Dutch Reformed Church in the then Cape Colony. According to legend, the ‘burg’ in Murraysburg is in honour of Barend Burger, the farmer who donated the land on which the town now stands. We don’t want to be too cynical, but it sounds like someone was paying lip service to good old Barend. After all, many town names end in ‘burg’.
Drive 3 km out of town on the R63 in the direction of Victoria West and turn off where a road sign sends you to Aberdeen (S31.96320 E23.73165). A dirt road first takes you over the Afrikashoogte Pass to a T-junction – aim for Aberdeen – followed by the Jonkersnek Pass. Then join the R61 regional road and make your way to Aberdeen.
This town was named after the birthplace in Scotland of Reverend Andrew Murray (Snr). On the outskirts of the town is the Camdeboo farm stall; a yellow-painted shop near the intersection of the N9 highway and the R51 regional road. Buy a bottle of prickly pear syrup (R50), a delicacy from the area, as a gift for your mom.
From the farm stall, drive 8 km in the direction of Graaff-Reinet until you notice an overgrown memorial stone on the opposite side of the road. The words: “Gordon’s Kop, Aberdeen 1955” are engraved on a marble slab. The name Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon may
not ring a bell at first, but his influence in South Africa is lasting. Gordon was a Dutch explorer, artist and naturalist employed by the House of Orange. He’s the one who named the Orange River – after William V, the Prince of Orange. The prince was pretty pleased with Gordon and sent him two rams and four ewes – they were originally a gift to William from the King of Spain – so that Gordon could start his own sheep farm in the Cape Colony. The result was the first merino stud in Africa. With Gordon’s death in 1795, the stud was auctioned off and the crew of a ship bought a number of lambs that were taken to a certain antipodean colony... hence the merino breed in Australia! And yes, the Cape coastal town of Gordon’s Bay gets its name from this same Gordon in gratitude for creating accurate maps of the southern coastline. But enough history for now. You’re thirsty and craving a braai. No worries, your campsite in Graaff-Reinet is less than 50 km away. Tonight, you can sit back with a cold beer in your favorite camping chair next to a campfire, examine your owl statue and drizzle some sweet prickly pear syrup over your dessert.
…today you’ll be exploring the vast plains of the Camdeboo so beloved by Eve Palmer
DAY TWO of the route again starts in Graaff-Reinet, but today you’ll be exploring the vast plains of the Camdeboo so beloved by Eve Palmer. Drive 2 km south of the town centre and turn left onto the R63. Follow this regional road for 3 km, then turn right at the Adendorp turn-off. Adendorp was named after NJ Adendorff, a farmer who subdivided his land into smallholdings in 1878 after running into financial difficulties. The resulting settlement was once a town in its own right, but Graaff-Reinet is expanding to the extent that nowadays it’s something of a suburb – just don’t say this out loud in front an Adendorpian. The Jesa Caravan Park here is a good alternative when the campsites in Graaff-Reinet are all full. Follow the road through Adendorp and drive 30 km over wide plains covered in aloes as far as the eye can see. After crossing the Sundays River twice more, you arrive in the abandoned town of Kendrew (S32.52297 E24.50524). The train station at Kendrew is overgrown with weeds and most of the houses collapsed years ago. To one side is a house with its walls and roof in a reasonably good condition, but inside there’s a troop of vervet monkeys. They bare their teeth when you get too close to ‘their’ house, the babies hide in back
right with a road sign for Aberdeen. You’re now driving back toward Aberdeen where you bought prickly pear syrup yesterday, but shortly before you enter the town again, there’s a crossroads with a road sign that says “iller 71”. Turn here in the direction of Miller (the M went missing) and drive the 71 km southward over the vast Aberdeen plains until you reach Miller at the foot of the Grootrivier mountains. Miller is a cattle post where the Kaalsfontein and Plessis rivers meet with its back against the Swanepoelspoort, a mountain pass that carves its way through the Grootrivier mountains into the Willowmore district. We’re going to stay in the Camdeboo, however, and follow the R337 eastward at the foot of the Grootrivier mountains to Klipplaat. Years ago, Klipplaat was an important railway junction where the track joining Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and GraaffReinet met. During both Anglo-Boer wars, it was a hive of activity as British soldiers were deployed inland after arriving on the coast. In 1947, Queen Elizabeth (then still a princess) apparently bought a tube of toothpaste at Klipplaat’s station shop when she and the royal family travelled through the Union of South Africa. rooms and some nervously crisscross the front yard and climb into thorn trees. Not all human residents have been evicted by the monkeys, because at the time of our visit there was one other habitable house with laundry hanging outside. Its residents, however, hid inside when we called a greeting from the gate. Drive back out of Kendrew as arrived, and turn left at the Aberdeen road sign. The aloes flourish alongside the road for the next 35 km – so much so that you can barely see the plains. The dirt road ends at the R338 regional road. Turn left here and follow the R338 for 13 km until you get another dirt road turnoff to the
…drive the 71 km southward over the vast Aberdeen plains until you reach Miller at the foot of the Grootrivier mountains
View the landscape you’ve explored over the past two days. Toast the sun as it sets, knowing that it will flood this country again
Instead of soldiers, the 1940s was a hive of activity thanks to the merino and angora farmers who sent their wool to markets, and travellers who had to switch trains here. Today, an old 4-8-0 steam locomotive stands guard next to a derelict station building – a final reminder of the SAR’s golden age. There still some life left in Klipplaat, though. During our visit, country crooner Tommy Dell’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” blared from inside the Charles Hotel’s bar. Take the R337 to Jansenville on the banks of the Sundays River. This town was named after General JW Janssens, governor of the Cape Colony during the short-lived Batavian rule. Jansenville is considered the cradle of the angora wool industry thanks to the numerous angora goat studs in the area. If the Sundays River is not in flood, you can drive up the dry riverbed. As soon as you’ve crossed the bridge over the Sundays River on the edge of town, immediately turn left into Boom Street. About 200 m on, you’ll see several warnings prohibiting the dumping of rubbish – you turn left and take a twintrack through fresh piles of rubbish to the riverbed where you can take a closer look at the stone pillars of the original bridge. We wanted to see how far we could drive up the river bed, but just around the first bend we ran into rows upon rows of rocks our Isuzu mu-X couldn’t conquer. Return to Bridge Street – as soon as you drive past the Merino Museum, turn left into Main Street and leave town. 4 km outside of town, you again cross a low-water bridge over the Sundays River – this road will be closed when the river flows. About 6 km later, you cross the river again, and again and again until you join the R75 regional road and return to your camp in Graaff-Reinet. Now then, that wasn’t so gruelling – unless you had to change a flat tyre in the scorching heat like we had to. Now you can tell everyone you know the Camdeboo. Hop in your car one last time and drive to the Valley of Desolation’s lookout point in the Camdeboo National Park where you can view the landscape you’ve explored over the past two days. Toast the sun as it sets, knowing that it will flood this country again.
I also want to go!
Can I go on my own? Yes, definitely. How long does it take? Our route took two days (eight hours each day), but there are several other back roads in the area as well as the nearby Addo Elephant, Mountain Zebra and Camdeboo national parks to explore.
What should I drive? A soft-roader such as a VW Tiguan or a Ford Ecosport will do just fine, but you need all-terrain tyres, as the dirt roads around here gobble up city tyres like there’s no tomorrow.
How much fuel do I need? You need a minimum range of 400 km.
What equipment should I pack? A tyre repair kit and a tow rope should the worst case scenario befall you.
Can I tow? Yes, but some of the dirt roads are truly dreadfull and we wouldn’t recommend you tow a standard road caravan on them.