Weekend Escape: Route 62
Forty-eight hours of hot springs, mountain tractors and muscadel
Here is the case for Montagu as your next weekend: it is close enough to leave after work on Friday, far enough that the phone goes quiet, and it packs more into a Saturday than towns twice its size. You drive through a mountain to get in. You soak in hot mineral water before dinner. And you sleep on a farm where the veld is part of a conservation project.
This is the itinerary we would give a friend. Follow it loosely. The whole point of Montagu is that nothing is far and nothing is urgent.
Leave the N2 or the R60 behind and come in through Cogmanskloof, where the road tunnels through the fold of the mountain under an old fort. Check in, open something local, and have dinner in the village. Long Street, all national monuments and lamplight, is made for a slow first walk.
Farm stays, cottages and a private game reserve in and around the village. Most of these support the Pietersfontein Conservancy or the Cape Leopard Trust, so the weekend gives back.
Start at the Saturday Village Market for coffee, farm bread and padkos you will eat too early. Then pick your mountain: the famous Protea Farm tractor ride has been hauling visitors up the Langeberg since 1985, ending in potjiekos and views across two valleys, or take Lovers Walk from Kanonkop, a flat, free amble along the river into the kloof where the cliffs go orange.
The afternoon is for the hot springs. Montagu's mineral water has been drawing visitors since Victorian times, and an hour or two in the pools resets whatever the week did to you. Dinner is lamb, always lamb, with a glass of the muscadel this valley is famous for.
If your legs are willing, the Bloupunt trail climbs about a thousand metres to a summit view over the whole Klein Karoo; it is a proper 15 kilometre day, so start at first light. Everyone else sleeps in, browses the antique shops, and drives home the long way on Route 62 with the windows down and the boot full of dried fruit.
Round photo pins are stays. Green leaf badges are the causes in the valley.
Montagu is the front door to the Klein Karoo. Sign in to plan a longer run through Barrydale and beyond, with stays that give back.
Plan a tripBook any stay in this guide through Spekboom and a share of the booking supports the causes above. You can also donate to them directly.
Choose from 7 places to stay in this guide
A portion of booking fees goes to the linked causes
Your stay supports conservation and community work on the ground
