Garden Route Unearthed

What a spectacular day – riding the PowerVan, hiking in the Outeniqua Mountains and lunch at Herold’s Winery. Best Day Ever!

On Saturday 18th November 2023, Bryan and myself and our friends Ken and Adele, had booked ourselves on to the Herold’s Wine Trail Walk with Anthony from Wide Open Spaces.

I had seen this walk advertised and it combined three activities I have been itching to do for quite some time.

One was riding the Outeniqua Powervan from the Outeniqua Transport Museum in George into the Outeniqua Mountains, second was hiking in the Outeniqua Mountains and the third activity was visiting Herold’s Winery.

As you can imagine, I was extremely excited to start the day!

We met Anthony, from Wide Open Spaces at the Outeniqua Transport Museum in George, at 8am.

Here we purchased our tickets for the 1-hour ride on the Outeniqua Powervan into the heart of the Outeniqua Mountains. At the point where the Powervan turns around to return down the mountains, we would be disembarking and starting our 9kms walk along one of the walking / hiking trails through the Outeniqua Mountains to Herold’s Winery.

At Herold’s Winery we would be enjoying a well deserved lunch, sampling some of Herold Winery’s delicious wines, (if we wished) and then a shuttle bus was arranged by Wide Open Spaces to take us back to the Outeniqua Transport Museum in George.

The Powervan is a motorised vehicle that travels along part of the old railway line route that went from George to Oudtshoorn.

The Powervan itself is actually the vintage rail inspection trolley that was made in the UK in the 1950’s.

The Outeniqua Power Van CC Company was established in the early 2000’s by the retired ex-Principle of the local George South Primary School, Nicol Marais.

Nicol was looking for something to keep him busy during the early years of his retirement and his passion for the greater George area and all it had to offer saw him acquiring the old service trolleys and inspection vehicles from Transnet and negotiating an access agreement with them to use the railway line.

The Outeniqua Powervan is normally booked as a trip on its own and consists of a 2.5 – 3 hour round trip journey that departs from and returns to the Outeniqua Transport Museum in George.

The route initially travels through parts of residential George and the Garden Route Botanical Gardens before starting its ascent up the Outeniqua Mountains. The route includes incredible views of George to the coastline at Mossel Bay (Mosselbaai) as well as the Outeniqua Mountain Range and the gravel road known as the Montaqu Pass (built 1844 – 1847).

On the Powervan, you travel through 6 tunnels, cross 4 mountain passes and the vegetation changes from forest, to ferns to fynbos. You will marvel at the engineering that took place to build this railway line and will undoubtably enjoy the commentary during the journey, which shares a lot of the history of the railway line and points out various interesting view points and facts,

After about 1-hour, the Powervan stops, the seats are swivelled around and it returns along the same route back to the Outeniqua Transport Museum, stopping at a picnic site en-route, so if you are just enjoying an excursion on the Outeniqua Powervan, be sure to pack some snacks to enjoy at this stunning view point.

For Bryan, myself, Ken and Adele, however, we were not returning with the Powervan, nor were we able to sit and have a tasty and relaxing picnic.

Our adventure was only just beginning.

We disembarked from the Powervan and started our 9km hike in the Outeniqua Mountains.

Initially we followed the gravel road of the Montagu Pass until we reached an area called the North Station. Here there apparently used to be a hotel, a post office and a police station.

At North Station, we turned off the Montagu Pass and took a walking trail into the mountains.

Cradock Peak (the highest peak in the Outeniqua Mountains at 1578 meters above sea level) was ahead of us. Fortunately we did not need to scale Cradock Peak to reach Herold’s Winery, the trail instead took us to the left of Cradock Peak.

We did have a reasonably tough downward path to take, which crossed a river and then ascended even more steeply on the other side.

This section was a bit hard on the legs, but the views were breath-taking, so there were a few stops taken on the way up, to admire the views, rest the legs and take a breather.

This was the only tough part of the 9km trail. The rest was relatively easy and the views were simply out of this world. It was also a beautiful day.

There were blue skies, no clouds and although a bit warm, we had plenty of water and took our time enjoying all there was to see around us.

As well as the views, there was a huge variety of flora to look at, including many different protea and fynbos species.

We were also treated to the chatter of a large troop of baboons dotted across the rocks, calling out to each other.

It was the perfect day for such an enjoyable adventure and the three hours it took us to walk the trail passed by so quickly, it seemed impossible we had already covered such a distance when we arrived at Herold’s Winery for lunch.

We spent a wonderful couple of hours at Herold’s Winery, sampling some wines and enjoying a delicious lunch. The food and drinks and company were wonderful.

The shuttle ride back to the Outeniqua Transport Museum took about 50 minutes and we arrived back at about 3.30pm.

We had all had the most wonderful day.

The entire experience was fabulous. I mean, who doesn’t love a ride on a vintage railway inspection vehicle, seeing truly spectacular views, doing a good bit of exercise, enjoying a scrumptious lunch and having some delicious wine thrown in!

I whole-hearted recommend you book on to the Herold’s Wine Trail with Anthony from Wide Open Spaces. You will have the best day ever!

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