Day 7: Lots of Little Karoo

Breakfast is an usually interesting part of the day when one is staying at different B&B places! The one that was served to us by Dick and Carmen was one of the nicest we have had on our trip so far - despite fierce competition. ;)

Joakim, Calle and Gun enjoying breakfast at Saxe-Coburg Lodge.

The door to our suite closest to the camera.

We got back on the road more or less right away setting out for Oudtshoorn again, but this time by the main road. We made a short stop to see a waterfall, a stop that Regina recommended, but other than that we kept going and going all day. I'm actually getting a bit tired of riding the car, it strikes me even more once the weather outside is nice and sunny! ;(

Very straight road through Little Karoo...

Little Karoo is a semi desert region of Western Cape. The climate is very different from that of the Garden Route, and still it is no more than 30 km further inland. This is because the mountains act as a barrier to the weather moving inland. The landscape was fetching to begin with, but after a few hours of it I sort of lost the awe.

We reached Oudtshoorn before noon and continued straight west - having set our minds on eating what had been recorded (on TripAdvisor) as the world's best carrot cake, in the small town of Calitzdorp. :D We got there at lunchtime and did have soup/sallad before trying the cake. It was good, in any case worth the stop. (But I guess I would always stop anywhere for a piece of carrot cake, world famous or not!)

Home of the world's best carrot cake?

After Calitzdorp we continued through Little Karoo all the way to Swellendam, the 4th oldest town in South Africa. It is known for its more than 50 provincial heritage sites, most of them buildings of Cape Dutch architecture. Here we stayed at "A Hilltop Country Retreat" where we found ourselves in a huge room including a kitchenette and bathroom. The best thing was the wifi that proved stable enough for a Skype chat with Vera, Vidar and my mother. :)

Towards the end of our day long ride the landscape turned more green again! :)

We then followed our dinner ritual and found a nice family restaurant downtown. It was the owner that waited on our table and he actually asked if we were Swedish (not German for once...). He told us that he receives a Swedish group once every week, stopping for a meal as part of group tour. This week he was expecting 27 Swedes to come and eat. We enjoyed our meal and shortly after the generous beds in our rooms!