The Little Karoo’s Route 62 between Montagu and Oudtshoorn is a famous
tar road drive. But, as Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit discovered, the
forgotten dirt roads in the area make for another kind of adventure.

Have you ever climbed a hill with two clunky cameras, a tripod and a toe full of gout? Yep, that’s me hobbling up there as my wife Jules strides ahead in the pre-dawn gloaming above a village called Klaarstroom.

Too much party at the Karroo Hotel outside Steytlerville has brought this acidic abomination upon me, but like a good little warrior I soldier on up the hill.

That’s because Klaarstroom at dawn is a Wunderwerk of note, this narrow gateway between the Great and the Little Karoo, surrounded by the Swartberg
and the Witteberg in a grand sweep of mountain and rock.

The backyard horse, dorper sheep with their square faces and the local shopkeeper stare up at what must surely be a mad hunchback chasing a fair maiden on the ridge above them.

But heck, when the dawn breaks over Klaarstroom, it’s worth the cat-calling, the neighing and the bleating to be up there.