The Klein Karoo
The Klein Karoo is an important sub-region of the World Heritage Site known as the Cape Floral Kingdom. Klein Karoo means ‘little desert’, an arid region that is interrupted every forty or fifty kilometers by fertile valleys fed by mountain streams that enable orchards and vineyards to flourish. Indeed, Route 62, the main highway traversing this fascinating land, is famed as the longest wine route in the world.
And Calitzdorp is its heart.
The Klein Karoo has a spectacular landscape fashioned hundreds of millions ago of years ago by water and geological upheaval. Its flora ranges from lush greenery in the river valleys to ground-hugging, hardy Karoo plants in the open veldt, including the largest number of succulents on earth.
The region’s astonishing geological shapes and formations are home to the famed Cango Caves, a series of spectacular caverns fashioned over millennia by the seepage of water through porous limestone rock.
At night, the Klein Karoo skies provide a stunning display of light virtually unknown to dwellers in the Big Smoke, including the Southern Cross, Orion and the awesome Milky Way in its infinite magnificence. Some say the Klein Karoo credibly challenges Montana as ‘big sky’ country.
