A weekend day tourfrom Cape Town

Du Toitskloof Pass, a wave-shaped chapel against the mountains, a desert botanical garden and an Italian-style winery: a one-day route with a driver.

Trip: March 2026Updated: 1 November 20262 min read

On Sunday, 22 March, we called Ham again, the very driver we’d travelled with on holiday to the Cape of Good Hope. We put together the route for the day ourselves, together with ChatGPT, and managed everything as planned.

In short

The route

Time, approx.	Place
8:30 a.m.	Leaving Cape Town
10:10 a.m.	Ou Meul bakery: coffee and breakfast
11:10 a.m.	Bosjes Chapel
12:05 p.m.	Karoo Desert Botanical Garden
2:10 p.m.	Bacco winery
—	Du Toitskloof Pass, on the way back
5:45 p.m.	Back in Cape Town

Ou Meul bakery

We started with coffee and breakfast at the Ou Meul bakery. Very good. A great start to the day.

Breakfast under an awning: avocado toast, coffee and an omelette

Bosjes Chapel

Bosjes Chapel stands on the Bosjes farm in the Breede River valley. Its roof is a thin white concrete wave: the curves echo the gables of old Cape houses and the line of the mountains around. The chapel was designed by the London studio of Coetzee Steyn (Steyn Studio) and opened in 2017.

Mountains above the garden, seen from beneath a tree’s branches

Karoo Desert Botanical Garden

Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden is a botanical garden in the town of Worcester that brings together desert plants and succulents.

The big trail was closed, and we took the smallest. The views are like the Wild West, a fun little walk. But we’d hoped to see what’s in the photos on Google: flowers in the middle of the desert. It turned out it wasn’t the season, and all around were dry, lifeless shrubs. Desert, in short. If you want flowers, come in the Southern Hemisphere’s spring, from August to October.

A valley and mountains, seen from the trail of the Karoo botanical garden — Not the season: hardly any flowers, but views like the Wild West

A quiver tree among dry bushes — Not the season: hardly any flowers, but views like the Wild West

Bacco winery

Bacco is a family-run, Italian-style winery in the Paarl wine district, already on the way back. It’s good and beautiful: the views, the wine and the food. We had a couple of glasses.

It was also one of the few open that day: on Sunday many wineries were closed. It’s worth checking opening hours in advance.

A tasting set: carafes and glasses on a table

Steel tanks under the wooden roof of the winery

Du Toitskloof Pass

The main thing I want to recommend from this day is Du Toitskloof Pass. We drove there by the direct road, and went over the pass on the way back. It’s very, very beautiful: we even stopped several times along the way just to take photos.

An empty road leading towards rocky mountains

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