Prince Albert

If you want to locate us on the blog map, we are very near Oudshoorn.


The town of Prince Albert is a little farming oasis set at the foot of the Swartberg Mountains (and our favorite pass). It reminded us a little of Mormon outposts in Utah, only it has an art scene/gay community and a real estate market that seems to be like Telluride in the early days: some interesting Victorian period architecture with gingerbread, numerous real estate offices lots of "investment opportunities" for wealthy people from Cape Town which is 4 hours away. Only problem is there is no ski area.

The Dennehof B&B where we stayed was the earliest farm in the area. It was converted to a B&B twenty years ago and now has a very sophisticated feel to it. We stayed in the Carriage Barn which had a shabby chic/southwest feel to it due to the large timber beams, thick walls and cow hide rug. Dinner at The Gallery on main street was another treat: impala for me, vegetables with a quinoa stuffing for Eva and a Malva Pudding,a kind of syrup soaked sponge cake that was billed as the SA national dessert.

From there we drove through the high dessert with straight roads, scenic mountains in the distance and lots of trucks to pass. Since a lot of highways here are only two lanes, drivers are very curteous and drive to the left in what would be the breakdown lane for us to let other drivers pass. After you pass you flash your lights to say "thank you".

We also passed more ostrich farms. The area saw a heyday in the late 1800's when ostrich feathers were used in hats, boas, etc. were fashionable. Now they have a couple ostrich farms where you can ride an ostrich (we didn't do that) or you can buy decorated ostrich eggs. I also had ostrich carpaccio for dinner one night.