The Hantam Highway is one of the longer tourism routes, taking in the N7, R27, R63 and N12, covering the West Coast, a large slice of the Northern Cape, and the southern Free State, and ending in Bloemfontein.
Although I have driven the Hantam in a single journey, over the years I have often returned to different sections.
Get behind the wheel…
Our journey starts in Vanrhynsdorp - travelling from the West Coast, you will reach the town along the dramatic mountain pass.
Magnificent flowers make this a dazzling area in August and September, so this is a great time to undertake a Hantam journey, but there is much to attract visitors at any time of the year.
Vanrhynsdorp (www.capewestcoast.org) is where three botanical areas meet: Nama-Karoo vegetation; the succulents of the Knersvlakte; and Cape fynbos.
The town was occupied twice by the Boers during the South African War. The old prison is home to the Van Rhyn Cultural History Museum (www.encounter.co.za/van-rhyn-cultural-history-museum.html).
Travelling east, the next town is Nieuwoudtville (www.hantammunicipality.co.za), on the Bokkeveld Plateau, and often referred to as the “bulb capital” of the world. Wild flowers and fynbos abound. In season, visit the Nieuwoudtville Wild Flower Reserve and Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve. The Waterfall Reserve has a pretty waterfall and small walking trail.
Outdoor activities include birdwatching, hiking, cycling, 4x4 routes and paragliding. A sedan car can easily tackle some of the scenic back roads, such as one that passes a magnificent stand of quiver trees (www.nieuwoudtville.com/quiver-tree-forest).
Lying at the foot of the Hantam Mountains (from which the highway gets its name) is Calvinia (www.hantammunicipality.com). Try to spend the night at Hantam Huis, which offers accommodation in the “nagmaal” rooms used by farmers when they came to town to receive communion. An authentic Karoo building, it also has a popular restaurant (www.tripadvisor.co.za or phone 027 341 1606) offering such traditional Karoo fare as skilpadjies (lamb’s liver wrapped in the fatty membrane surrounding the kidneys). The town’s neo-Gothic church is a national monument.
Williston (www.karoohoogland.co.za) began life as a Rhenish mission station. Take in the funky Vlieënde Piering (Flying Saucer) craft shop.
Carnarvon (www.kareeberg.co.za) is south of the Karoo Mountains. The district is famous for its corbelled homes, which for security reasons – because of marauding stock thieves – had no windows. With their 6m-high ceilings and thick rock walls, they are cool in summer, while the rocks hold the heat of the sun in winter.
You can stay in some of these homes (phone: 023 571 1265; e-mail: hooglandtourism@ telkomsa.net).
The Square Kilometre Array (www.skatelescope.org), the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope, is being built 100km north-west of Carnarvon.
More and more artists are seeking out sleepy Loxton (www.loxton. org.za) which has many typical, well-preserved Karoo houses.
Delightful Victoria West (www. ubuntu.gov.za), established in the mid-1800s, takes one back in time.
Vosburg (www.kareeberg.co.za) has a number of lovely heritage buildings. On Keurfontein farm, you can see San rock art (http://www.nightjartravel.com/rockart/keurfontein).
The Great Diamond Rush is brought to mind in Britstown (www.emthanjeni.co.za). Fortune-hunters stopped off here on their way to the diamond fields. Now head for Prieska (www.siyathemba.co.za) on the banks of the Orange River, and Strydenburg (Town of Strife), which got its name because there were so many different opinions about what the town should be called.
It was at Hopetown (www.northerncape.org.za), on the banks of the Orange River, that the first diamond was discovered in 1867. Leisure activities include white-water rafting, game viewing, hiking and birding.
Petrusville lies in a fertile valley, surrounded by some high hills.
Orania (www.orania.co.za) is the town bought by a group of Afrikaners with the aim of creating a volkstaat (people’s state). It has a 2m monument to the koeksister, and a statue of HF Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid.
The Vanderkloof Dam is the country’s second-largest, with the highest dam wall. Fishermen enjoy stopping over at the Selous Fly Fishing Lodge (www.selous.co.za), while hikers are drawn to the wilderness trails in the Rolfontein Nature Reserve (www.vanderkloofdam.co.za).
Philipstown, founded as a church centre in 1863, was named after Sir Philip Wodehouse, a Cape governor. Its sandstone Gereformeerde Kerk (Reformed Church) is a national monument.
We then cross into the Free State, where Luckhoff (www.luckhoff.org) was made prosperous by irrigated crop and merino sheep farming along the Orange River.
Koffiefontein (http://www.places.co.za/html/koffiefontein.html) was a coffee stop for transport riders in the 19th century.
Fauresmith (www.fauresmith.co.za), established in 1849, is the second-oldest town in the Free State. It is the only town in South Africa, and one of three in the world, where the railway line runs down the centre of the main road.
The last stop, before the Hantam Highway ends in Bloemfontein, is Jagersfontein (www.jagersfontein.co.za), once a flourishing diamond mining village.
Weekend Argus