Suggested Itinerary - Day Five
Balloon Trip and other exclusive visits
How would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon?
Here’s the deal – rendezvous in Oudtshoorn at sunrise with our pilot, Charl, enjoy a wake-up mug of steaming tea or coffee while we watch the giant balloon being inflated, then into the basket, a blast on the burner and we have a lift-off!
If this is your first ballooning experience, you will be amazed at the contrast between the roar of the burner one moment, followed by the most eerie silence the next as you glide stealthily across the world of ordinary mortals below. The support bakkie (pickup) far below us is struggling to keep up as we drift at the discretion of the breeze alone, oblivious to the direction of roads below.
Then after an all-too-brief hour, “What already?” comes the landing in the most convenient open area below. A bump or two and we’re down, a glass of complimentary bubbly in hand, chattering with delight about the joy of it all.
We are driven back to Oudtshoorn and breakfast, then wend our way towards our next assignation, full of astonishment that the day has barely begun for less fortunate folk.
Now we’re able to enjoy a couple of special visits to Calitzdorp people not usually accessible to ordinary tourists. The first is Derek McKenzie, an almost mystical photographer of Karoo people and scenes, who lives and works in the old village Post Office. If you’re interested in photography as art, Lyn or Allan will set up the visit.
Next is renowned ex-Cape Town restaurateur and hotelier, Peter Bayly, recently retired from that burdensome, if rewarding occupation to go gentleman farming with his wife, Yvonne. He now makes port, bottled under his name in an amphora-like container, and very well received by the industry it has been. His cellar and tastings are only available by special arrangement. Needless to say, Calitzdorp Country House can fix that.
The Bayly farm is on the scenic route through Groenfontein (green fountain), about 15 kms from CC House.
If you have the time and are not by now too weary, then the Gamkaberg Nature Reserve offers short walking trails to see the famed succulents of the region. Because of the illegal succulent trade, these are only accessible with a guide. We will be happy to arrange this for you, but it must be booked well in advance, please.
The guide will share his expert knowledge with you and cover ground both literally and figuratively, explaining how the succulents’ colourful and even risqué Afrikaans names came to be given to these remarkable plants – Bobbejaankos (baboon food), Bababoutjies (babies bums) and Haasballetjies (hares balls).
Now back to Calitzdorp Country House, to a well-deserved drink followed by an evening of fine dining and subsequent contemplation of the billion stars of the Milky Way, seen with a beauty and clarity no longer visible in the Big Smoke of the cities, glass of Calitzdorp Port in hand.
