Clarens and the Maluti Foothills

A Sandstone Village Of Galleries, Breweries And Restaurants Under The Maluti Mountains, Which Has Become The Free State'S One Tourist Town By Being The Pleasantest Place To Stop Between Johannesburg And The Drakensberg With Golden Gate'S Cliffs Ten Minutes East, The Lesotho Border An Hour On, And San Rock Art On The Farms Around It · Clarens, Free State

The Free State is the province South African tourism forgets, and Clarens is the exception that proves it can be done. A village of sandstone cottages laid out in 1912 under the Maluti mountains, it has become the one place in the province that people drive to on purpose - because it has galleries, breweries, restaurants and a square to sit on, and because it sits ten minutes from Golden Gate's sandstone cliffs and an hour from the Lesotho border at Caledonspoort. The sandstone is the point: the whole eastern Free State is built of it, the cliffs glow orange in late light, and the village was made of the same rock it stands on. The Maluti range across the border fills the southern horizon with snow on it in winter. There is San rock art on farms in the district, white water on the Ash river and a great deal of very good sitting still. It is three and a half hours from Johannesburg, which is why weekends fill it.

In the eastern Free State sandstone country between Golden Gate and the Lesotho border at Caledonspoort, Clarens, Free State, South Africa

A village. THE GALLERIES, CRAFT SHOPS AND BREWERIES KEEP DAYLIGHT HOURS and many close or shorten on Mondays and Tuesdays, because the week here runs from Thursday - CLARENS FILLS ON WEEKENDS AND LONG WEEKENDS AND EMPTIES MIDWEEK, which cuts both ways: book ahead for a Saturday, and expect several places shut if you come on a Tuesday. The restaurants around the square are the main event and worth booking Friday and Saturday. Golden Gate Highlands National Park is ten minutes east on the R712 with its own gate hours and fee. San rock art on surrounding farms is by arrangement with the farmer or through a local operator. The Lesotho border at Caledonspoort is about an hour and keeps its own hours - take passports. MALARIA-FREE, and cold in winter.

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