Sightseeing near Oudtshoorn

Sunday morning was cool and cloudy, with showers forecast.  Nevertheless, the bougainvillea around our B&B were in full splendor.



After breakfast we set out for a drive across Swartberg Pass via Meiringspoort Pass.  Swartberg is a rugged mountain pass constructed by convict labor in the late 1800’s, with immense dry-stack stone retaining walls and hairpin turns, while Meiringspoort is a canyon cut through spectacular rock formations.

We started through Meiringspoort, marveling at the lack of the usual traffic - the weather forecast probably accounted for that.  But as we cruised along admiring the scenery, we suddenly came upon -





baboons in the middle of the road.  As we rounded corners, we came across more and more of them.  Some seemed to be picking something out of the pavement (seeds? grubs?), while others were just hanging around - or climbing roadside trees. We laughed at one who was climbing a tree as another pulled a limb down then let it go, sending the climber flying.  Baboons are very intelligent and very ornery!

We saw somewhere around 50 to 60 of them altogether.

We left Meiringspoort Pass behind and headed for Swartberg, but when we got to the turnoff -



No signs, but the makeshift barrier was pretty clear - the road was closed.  We drove on to the town of Prince Albert, and John asked the guys at a service station about it - apparently it’s been closed for about a week because of washouts.

So we drove back to Oudtshoorn through Meiringspoort Pass again, and again enjoyed the baboons.  


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