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Exploring the Eastern Karoo, Graaff-Reinet

With yet another public holiday on Monday for Pete, we decided to escape the bustling city and developed coastline and head inland to the Karoo for the long weekend. The Karoo is vast semi-desert stretching across the South African plateau inland from the Cape coast. Graaff-Reinet is considered the ‘jewel of the Karoo’, and is a 2.5hr drive north of PE therefore we decided to base ourselves there.

Graaff-Reinet is nestled in a bend of the Sundays River surrounded by the imposing peaks and mountains of the Sneeuberg Range. The town has an interesting mix of Cape Dutch architecture, classic flat-roofed Karoo cottages and Victorian terraces. Whilst appearing quite run-down and short of cash, the town did have a nice relaxed feel to it. We chose to camp at Urquhart Park, north of town. Jen figured that she would be just as comfortable (or uncomfortable!) camping at 32 ½ weeks pregnant as staying in a B&B (and turned out to be right!).

We went to the recommended Kliphuis restaurant for dinner on Saturday night. Pete’s meal is worth mentioning. On his plate for his main was the following: rack of Karoo lamb with strawberry and mint sauce garnished with alfalfa, mashed sweet potato, beans & boiled potato, rice, beetroot & feta salad, iceberg lettuce and rocket- all the ingredients in the world don't make for a good meal...it was rated a 3.5/10. It was no surprise that we decided to cook our own meal for dinner the following night for Pete’s birthday with such a mish-mash of flavours on one plate!

Pete insisted that he put the tent up by himself to prove that it's possible!

On Sunday morning we visited the Karoo Nature Reserve which virtually surrounds Graaff-Reinet. This mountainous veld typical of the Karoo is very picturesque scenery and has quite good game viewing given the confined space. We saw funky black wildebeest (first spotting for this species), lots of springbok, kudu, and vervet monkeys amongst other game. Then to the Valley of Desolation for a picnic lunch and short hike. It is a beautiful valley with outstanding views framed by the dolorite columns in the foreground.

Vervet monkey


Graaff-Reinet in a bend of the Sundays River


Valley of Desolation

Valley of Desolation- the dolorite column in the middle bears a resemblance to a lions footprint!


We also strolled through the town centre visiting Reinet House, a beautiful Cape Dutch style house built in 1812. The draw card feature for us though was the cobblestone side courtyard which has a grapevine planted in 1870 that is considered one of the largest in the world (the vine originally had a single stem measuring 3.1m in diameter however it had to be removed in the 70’s due to fungal rot). Random but interesting!

Reinet House



Pete in a courtyard at Reinet House

The infamous grape vine

A funky baobab like cactus outside a Karoo style house!

To celebrate Pete’s birthday we ate delicacies of the Karoo for entree and then cooked a yummy pasta on the camp fire (yes... aka ‘pyro Pete’ insisted we have a fire!).

Happy Birthday Pete!

Graaff-Reinet

When people constantly refer to ‘the Karoo’ we now understand what they mean and have experienced it... it was a relaxing weekend away in the remote, quiet and semi-desert environment.

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