Klein Karoo Magic — where Roadside America meets South African charm

Here, Route 62 is the region’s artery, its dusty back roads branching off to remarkable faces and hidden places tucked into the magnificent Swartberg Ranges.

Our two-year research journey was a deep dive into the stories, surprises and quiet delights found along this legendary road that CNN Travel has called “one of the world’s best road trip destinations”.

Much of the iconography of the Klein Karoo has been purloined from popular American culture: the Route 62 sign, little brother of the more famous Route 66; the old Cadillacs, ultimate American symbols of freedom and the dreamy highways of youth.

Followed by roadside diners with attitude, double-thick milkshakes, burgers with all the trimmings, funky food trucks, Harley-Davidson thumpers growling on the tarmac and a quick beer at a renegade biker bar before heading off into the sunset. More billboards along the way than anywhere else in the Karoo, but somehow splashy, funny and kind of sexy in a Marilyn Monroe manner. Even a Rock Saloon where the tunes are true and the beers are cold. And, in true frontier style, a fair smattering of bordello legends.

But, as always, the South African flavour strikes through, this time in the form of home-grown farm stalls (padstalle), lavish wine estates, witblits to beat the band, all manner of Karoostyle architecture, curious ostriches batting their eyelashes at strangers, Calitzdorp in harvest season, and ramshackle hamlets where donkey carts rule.

This is followed by the frenzy of Saturday-afternoon platteland rugby, a visit to the Barrydale Fight Club, dawn amid the legendary Red Stone Hills near Kruisrivier and a trip down into a heavenly valley called Die Hel.

So, it’s Roadside America with a raft of South African accents along the way.

Klein Karoo Magic (390 pages, full colour) by Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit will be released in mid-May, 2026. To pre-order your author-signed copy (R400 including SA courier service), email Julie at julie@karoospace.co.za