Willowmore to Graaff-Reinet – the Camdeboo route

EEver wanted to find a destination where very little happens, the air is clear and all is quiet? Then look no further than the little towns that line the N9 from Willowmore to Graaff-Reinet in the Great Karoo section of the Eastern Cape. 

We’re going on a 250km drive north through the Eastern Cape Karoo, from Willowmore to Graaff-Reinet, with a remarkable detour along the way. If you’re a city-stressed person, this road is where you are going to find the peace and open skies you’ve been dreaming about. 

Willowmore, most days of the week, is a buzzing little town because it stands as the gateway to both the Karoo and the Baviaanskloof area, a large natural area popular with hikers, nature lovers and adventure junkies. Willowmore is especially popular with bikers of all ages who love to visit the Baviaans and then ride for hundreds of kilometres through the vast Karoo, South Africa's dry, inland heartland. 

We stop over for coffee and a snack at Sophie’s Choice and snoop around the antique shop next door. There’s some really fresh carrot cake on the menu today, a generous slice of which will give you good travel energy and, of course, a sugar rush. 

The treed streets of Willowmore are so alluring that by mid-afternoon we’re still exploring. OK. Let’s just book in somewhere for the night and make an early start tomorrow. The Willow Historical Guest House looks good, and so does the eccentric little pub inside. 

The next morning we head up the N9 for a scant 20km before turning off on a reasonably good dirt road to the village of Rietbron. They say nothing happens in Rietbron, and we’re going to test that theory. 

They’re right! It’s all quite marvellously still as we drive through the dusty streets of this farming settlement. Many of the classic Karoo building styles are evident here, and some of us make discreet enquiries about where the nearest estate agent might be lurking. 

Rietbron is much-beloved by its locals, and the highlight of the annual calendar is a rugby festival early in the year, which brings schools from all over the region to these hard-scrabble Karoo playing fields. 

After some time spent chatting to the trading-store owner, we head out of town and rejoin the N9 to Aberdeen. 

The first striking feature of Aberdeen is its wide streets, where you can comfortably do a U-turn with a wagon and a team of 16 oxen. Then there’s the beautiful Dutch Reformed church and those stunning gargoyles on top of the tiled roof of the post office. This is a town with serious Karoo architecture and, if you make enquiries, you will find it is home to some of the best artists in the region. 

We sleep over at Pagel House, one of the most elegant homes in the Karoo. It is named after the famous Pagel family who owned a travelling circus in the early 1900s. Many of their animals spent their retirement years in a zoo in Aberdeen – now long-closed. 

On our last day of this Camdeboo route (Camdeboo is a large, desolate and beautiful area which incorporates the towns of Graaff-Reinet, Aberdeen and Nieu-Bethesda), we make the short 55km drive to Graaff-Reinet, also known as the Gem of the Karoo. This is the 4th-oldest town in South Africa, and its Victorian-era buildings have been well-preserved. 

We take a tour of the museum complex, drop in at the fine McNaughton's Bookshop and, with David McNaughton as our guide, we drive up the Camdeboo National Park to a viewing point overlooking the Valley of Desolation. Someone thought to pack a picnic hamper, and so we feast and toast the end of the trip...