Oudtshoorn and Meiringspoort Waterfall

After returning from the awesome stay in the Addo Elephant Park and a short stopover in Plettenberg we continued our journey back to Cape Town via the beautiful town of Oudtshoorn.

Coming from the coast, to get to Oudtshoorn we had to get over a mountain pass called Outeniqua Pass. I don´t know if I ever had such a scenic drive. Even Australia can´t keep up here. Although Oudtshoorn is still a part of the Garden Route District it lays in the little Karoo, a desert like region that is very different to the coast. That means that as soon as you got over that pass the flora changes dramatically. It´s dry, hot, dusty and the colour changed from a lush green into a red.

Near the top of that Mountain Pass we made a stop at a beautiful rest area to have a quick lunch. Probably the lunch with the most amazing view ever. Look at these awesome lush green mountains. It is always moments like this one that amazes me. Not the national park were I know what to expect.

After crossing that mountain pass the temperature rose a few degrees. Great, because we had booked into the Africamp for another time. You might remember that we´ve stayed in one of the Glamping Tents before. This time we do not have a hot tub but a pool, which we welcomed at over 30 degrees.

We just fell in love with that type of accommodation so we booked it again for 2 nights again and this was already one of the highlights here in Oudtshoorn. The tents are exactly the same as it is a franchise, the only difference is the pool. Colder regions have the hot tub while warmer regions have a pool...makes sense ;)

But the main reason for me to book it was the expectations of the view and we were not disappointed. Laying in the pool at 30 degree with such a breathtaking view was almost as good as laying in the hot tub at night and watching the stars.

Oudtshoorn has a pretty interesting history. Founded in 1847, the city had its heyday in the 20th century as the center of the ostrich industry. The history is still visible today with the feather palaces of the ostrich barons, most of them are still standing today. part from these houses there are several other beautiful buildings.

It´s such a cute small town with beautiful architecture. Furthermore I had the feeling that it´s way more relaxed here and you don´t have to be worried about crimes like in cape town. I had the feeling that way more people here speak Africaans instead of english what was quite cool as well as I really like that language.

Anyway, the absolute highlight of our stay here was the trip on the first morning to a place called Meiringspoort Waterfall. We already saw photos of it before but had no idea how beautiful it really is.

The road to there that was going through the mountains was already pretty impressive. The light and the colours were simply amazing.

On the way to there are several parking bay where you can stop and enjoy that great place. There were a lot of warning on every stop about Baboons. Baboons are everywhere in South Africa and they can get quite aggressive and dangerous. We´ve only seen them out of the c this time.

As we finally arrived at the Waterfall we were the only ones there. Everything looked like it has just been built and there were a few people cleaning and taking care about that place. They even made an opinion poll about how we found out about this place. Sounds like they´re trying to make it more touristic.

Anyway, it´s only a short walk to the waterfall and thats absolutely worth it.

Since we knew that it´s not only a waterfall but a pool as well we had our swimwear with us. Luckily, because that was the most amazing water coming from a waterfall I´ve ever seen. It was crystal clear and simply inviting.

I did not think twice before I jumped in. It was freezing cold but as it was already hot outside it was a welcome refreshing. Plus we had it to our own as there was absolutely no one around. People always tend to go to the big main attractions of a region and forget about the small things. We only found this place by scrolling through google maps.

After the swim we did a bit of rock climbing and enjoyed the views we had there. What an absolutely amazing place, I wish I could go back there right now. There also is lots of wildlife in this region but we only saw birds and baboons. We even saw a sign again that there could be encounters with a Leopard but I guess it´s really really rare to see them like this in the wild.

Many people told us to skip Oudtshoorn and drive a bit further to Prince Albert since Oudtshoorn is a tourist trap. Might be true, if you come here for any Ostrich activities but not if you like us just explore on your own. There is always something cool, beautiful or interesting, you just need to find it. :)

you will find this post on pinmapple as well
[//]:# (!pinmapple -33.407012 lat 22.557507 long Oudtshoorn and Meiringspoort Waterfall d3scr)

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