Southernmost Cycling

The Southernmost cycling holiday is in the Agulhas Plain. It is in the southern Overberg (“Over the mountain”) region of the Western Cape, South Africa. The route is along country roads through farmland, nature reserves and charming villages at the tip of the African continent where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. The rugged, windswept coastal plain is geographically striking, with a rich natural and cultural heritage

Highlights

Villages
Charming historical villages such as Stanford, Napier, Elim and Agulhas

Coast and Plains
Ride along interesting rocky and ruggedly beautiful coast and through inland sand plains, farmland, vineyards, wetlands and dunes.

National Park
Experience the Cape Agulhas National Park, which covers about 21 000 ha. It has more that 9000 species of flowering plants and the coastline supports a rich marine and intertidal life, with breeding sites of rare birds such as the African Black Oystercatcher. The focus is on some of the most splendid examples of lowland fynbos and lowland fynbos on limestone soils - considered endangered and restricted largely to the southern Overberg.

Flora
The Overberg area is the smallest plant kingdom in the world with the greatest number of different species. Of the nine thousand species, some can be found nowhere else. The Strandveld Agulhas Plain is unique and significant by international conservation standards due to its rich biodiversity. The Cape Floral Kingdom consists mostly of fynbos and renosterveld. Of the 800 Erica species in the world, more than 80 % grow in the Cape Floral Kingdom. Interesting plants in this habitat include the mountain bluebell, the flame red Bredasdorp lily, the granny bonnet and the Cape everlasting.

Views
Stunning views, beautiful beaches, pebble bays, rock pools. Whale watching from September to November.

Conservation
The Nuwejaars Wetland Special Management Area (SMA) is an initiative by 25 private landowners and local communities to collectively manage certain land for conservation.Some 46,000 hectares of often critically endangered habitat on the Agulhas Plain is protected. The primary goal is to protect and use the land sustainably- to find the balance between environmental integrity, human well being and economic efficiency within the area.Biodiversity and wetland conservation is promoted as well as sustainable farming practices. One of the initiatives was to re-introduce buffalo to the Agulhas Plain for the first time in more than 200 years. Now, with their numbers steadily increasing, the Agulhas Plain has once again become a source of disease-free buffalo.This collaboration between landowners and local communities is the first of its kind in South Africa. UNESCO has expressed interest in the Nuwejaars Wetland Special Management Area (SMA), as a working example of its Man and the Biosphere programme.

Shipwrecks
The coastline is renowned for shipwrecks, and streets and businesses in Cape Agulhas bear the names of some ill-fated ships. These include Meisho Maru, St Mungo, Brederode, Nossa Senhora dos Milagros, Juno and Martha. Some 250 ships have been wrecked here over time.

History
The country's second oldest working lighthouse was built at L'Agulhas in 1848. Other historical features include the 200 year old fishermen's village at Kassiesbaai and fisherman's cottages at Hotagterklip. You can also explore fish traps and other valuable historic and cultural legacy left by the Khoikhoi beach nomads who lived along this coastline for centuries.