Venster Kloof Nature Garden / Caledon Wildflower Garden

Venster Kloof Nature Garden

Venster Kloof Nature Garden, also known as the Caledon Wildflower Garden, is a wonderful space in which to spend a little time. It is not run by either SANBI or Cape Nature as one would anticipate, and lies just off the N2. It is called Venster Kloof not only because it lies just on the edge of the kloof of that name, but also after a particularly noticeable rock formation that forms a window or 'venster' as it is known in Afrikaans.

The Venster Kloof gardens are one of the best kept secrets of Caledon, and you need to know about them to visit them. There is a little dam quite near the entrance, fields of daisies (depending on the time of year you are there), a rocky kloof filled with aloes that leads up into the mountains around Caledon, and a fairly extensive network of paths that take a while to walk. The central parts of the garden, in particular, are beautiful, and during spring (around September) rather inspiring through which to stroll.

The gardens have views out over Caledon and a number of places to rest and drink in the surrounding flowers and plants. The garden is apparently landscaped on land bequeathed to the municipality by Queen Victoria in 1899. The garden was established in 1927 and forms part of the greater nature reserve up on the Swartberg Mountain north of Caledon.

Caledon lies roughly 100 kilometres outside of Cape Town on the N2 and is famous for its hot and cold springs, which, by all accounts, are preferred by travellers to the springs at Montagu. At Caledon the N2 converges with the R316 to Arniston and Bredasdorp and the R320 to Hermanus.