South Africa is a placed filled with great beauty, heritage and diversity and, living in a city, we often feel like the city we live in is all there is. You start taking the gorgeous sites, rich history and diverse cultures for granted and, if you’re lucky, you look forward to a holiday every now and then, to see another part of the world.
The reason we are doing this roadtrip around South Africa is because we would like to encourage you to get to know the place you live, your backyard if you will, before converting those Rands and heading to shores unknown. South Africa is so full of different cultures that we stumbled across a French owned lodge called Le Petit Karoo when we Googled, “reasonable accommodation in Oudtshroon”.
When we arrived here we didn’t realized we would be surrounded by French speaking guests and were, in fact, the only locals staying here. Of course, there is nothing like bumping into all the other guests at breakfast and hearing German, French and Italian accents all around you. It sort of felt like we were in Europe without paying in Euros (thanks goodness)!
There is nothing like driving through the Little Karoo to make you feel incredibly small and insignificant. Plains of gold stretch on for days while passes take you through towering hills and mountains in every shade of blue, green and ochre you can imagine.
A photo posted by Tami (@rumtumtiggs) on
Day 5: Schoemanskloof, Oudtshroon
I struggle to not feel guilty about taking time to just stop and just absorb my surroundings. It’s almost like I feel the need to explore every nook and cranny of every town, every minute of the holiday, which leaves me exhausted enough to need another holiday by the time I head home.
Who said that you couldn’t just laze about on the deck with a book, and watch the sunset without having to post it on Instagram. No one should be expected to “climb every mountain and ford every stream” just because they are there.
So, giving myself a chance to just “self medicate” with good clean air and take a holiday from the rat race today, means that tomorrow we will try and fit in as much as possible. We’re thinking about heading to De Rust and the Meiringspoort Waterfall and, if we have time, fit in the (everyone does it) Cango Caves.
It’s been great to see a greener side of Oudtshroon to replace my childhood memories of orange and brown dust while visiting another ostrich farm. Schoemanskloof is the green and blue I needed to see, to feed my soul.
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