Garden of plenty

You’ll find the sweet spot where the highway meets the ocean, from about Mossel Bay in the west to Storms River in the east. Here, the acidity of bold local wines are naturally neutralised by the region’s velvety cheese.

For a garden to flourish, all of its elements must be in balance. Otherwise it withers and bears no fruit. And so it is with a road trip along the Garden Route, where the scrub of South Africa’s Cape gets a vine-veiled forested perm, where the road squiggles around dramatic mountainous contours and river valleys into misty seaside towns with lingering lagoons.

A 200-kilometre section of the route, its sweet spot, gourmet sandwiched in between the open-handed swell of the Indian Ocean and the sentry-like Cape Fold mountains offers such a balance. You’ll find it where the highway meets the ocean, from about Mossel Bay in the west to Storms River in the east. Here, the acidity of bold local wines are naturally neutralised by the region’s velvety cheese. In turn,