Worcester & Hex Valley

With the exception of historic Church Street, Worcester (110km from Cape Town) doesn’t offer much in the way of cosy weekend potential. The town may well have historical significance, but most of it’s hidden under a neon pastiche of Spur, KFC and family chain stores. Apart from a few resorts, Worcester also has a near total absence of good self-catering options. In our opinion then, you can safely give the town a miss, but not the very picturesque Hex Valley and dramatic mountains that surround it.

Things To Do
  • The Karoo National Botanical Garden outside Worcester is 144ha semi-desert vegetation and 10ha landscaped garden. Euphorbias, cycads, stem succulents, desert grapes, spekbome and mesembryanthemums, they’re all there for the viewing.
     
  • The kids will love Kleinplasie Museum, described as a ‘living open-air museum’, where the lifestyle of early pioneer farmers is depicted. The daily life of these pioneers seemed to be filled with baking bread, twisting tobacco, slaughtering animals, plucking geese, making soap and being stared at by tourists.
     
  • A stroll down Worcester’s oak-lined Church Street is a welcome breather in an otherwise bustling town.
     
  • Designed by Gary Player, the Worcester Golf Club is promoted as a local asset offering scenery, abundant bird life and, of course, golf.
     
  • Four dams, all containing carp and bass, feed the town. Closer to Cape Town, the Du Toitskloof Resort has canned trout fishing.
     
  • The Worcester wine route lists 20 or so cellars and co-ops; if these don’t keep you busy, Robertson is up the road with 24 of its own. 
     
  • The possibilities for day- and multi-day hiking in the mountains above and around Worcester are vast. The tourist office will put you in touch with a lot of them.
     
  • Not our idea of a grand day out, but every tourism brochure we came across mentions Worcester’s schools for the blind, the deaf and the deaf-blind. Now, who was that eejit who said all men are born equal?
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