Route 62

Route 62 runs inland roughly parallel to the N2, between mountain ranges through the Klein Karoo, and it was branded as a touring route in the 1990s to give travellers an alternative to the Garden Route - the marketing calls it the longest wine route in the world, which is a claim to take loosely. What it delivers is a string of small towns with their own characters: Montagu with its hot springs and Victorian houses, Barrydale with a hippyish craft scene, Ladismith under a split-topped mountain, Calitzdorp making port-style fortified wines, and Oudtshoorn at the end with ostriches. Between them are Cogmanskloof with its tunnel through rock, farm stalls, and the roadside oddity of Ronnie's Sex Shop, a bar named by a prank on a friend's sign. The scenery is dry mountain and vineyard, and the driving is easy tar throughout.

What you actually see

• The wine towns - Montagu, Barrydale, Ladismith and Calitzdorp along one road.
• The Calitzdorp ports - fortified wines that made this town's reputation.
• Cogmanskloof - a gorge with a tunnel cut through the rock near Montagu.
• The roadside oddities - farm stalls and Ronnie's Sex Shop, named as a joke.

When to go

March to May and September to November - summer in the Klein Karoo is very hot. Two to three days.

Honest expectations

The "longest wine route in the world" is marketing. Distances between towns are long with little in between. Summer heat is severe. Some towns are very quiet midweek, with restaurants closed.

Nearby

Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves are at the eastern end; Montagu is at the west.