Roadtrip to the Klein Karoo. Yep, didn’t know where it was either! But picturesque arid countryside.

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7 ай бұрын

The Klein Karoo (Little Karoo) is a spectacular 350 kilometre long valley stretching from Montagu in the west to Uniondale in the east, and is almost completely surrounded by mountains. The Klein Karoo is only between 40 and 60 kilometres wide, sandwiched between the imposing Swartberg Mountains (Black Mountains) in the north, and the continuous Langeberge (Long Mountains) and Outeniqua Mountains in the south.
The Langeberge and Outeniqua Mountains act as a rain-shield from the well-watered coastal plains to the south. What rainfall penetrates the Klein Karoo tends to concentrate against the southern slopes of the Swartberg Mountains, ensuring that many of the towns and villages are concentrated along the northen edge of the Klein Karoo. Almost all of the southern sections of the Klein Karoo, in the lee of the Langeberge and Outeniqua Mountains, tend to be more arid than the areas immediately adjacent to the southern slopes of the Swartberg Mountains in the north.
The popular Route 62 Tourist Route runs the full length of the valley from Montagu in the west through the village of Barrydale, at the southern entrance to the western sections of the Klein Karoo via the Tradouw Mountain Pass, to Ladismith beneath the towering Swartberg Mountains and the distinctive 2198-metre high Towerkop in the Klein Swartberg Mountain Range.
Rooiberg Pass between Calitzdorp and Van Wyksdorp
The Klein Karoo is the most accessible region within the Karoo and attracts the greatest number of visitors. As a destination the region is probably the most varied of the seven regions in the Karoo and this can largely be ascribed to its topography and the relatively higher rainfall.
The Klein Karoo is rich in culture with well-established communities that can trace their ancestry back across the centuries. The towns and villages are on the whole beautifully maintained, with a rich variety of historic buildings, many of which can be as old as two hundred years.
The diversity of the landscapes, with rugged mountains always in view, and the rolling hills and valleys within the Klein Karoo provide an endless source of delight and wonderment.
Despite being the most developed part of the Karoo there remains a sense of space and solitude across most of the region and the Karoo landscape fringed by mountains is always as one with the blue dome of the sun-splashed sky.
Effervescence' by Scott Buckley
Released under CC-BY 4.0.
www.scottbuckley.com.au