PAARDEN EILAND ‘island of horses’ situated in the Salt River delta. This island was used to house horses in former years. The river has been channelled into canals and today it is completely built over with factories.

CANAL WALK, reputed to be the biggest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere.

In 1720 a church was built here leading to the establishment of this town.
On the mountain overlooking the town, there are two 500 million year old massive granite boulders which gleam like pearls when wet, providing Paarl or “Pearl” with its name.

Rapid economic development in the Cape resulted in the need for more efficient road links between the port of Cape Town and its valuable hinterland. To satisfy this need, the National Transportation Commission appointed a South African and a Zurich based consortium to plan and engineer this 3 913 metre long tunnel. Carved deep into the KLEIN DRAKENSTEIN MOUNTAINS the tunnel was finally opened to the public in April 1988 effectively shortening the distance between Paarl and Worcester by 11 kilometers.

Established in 1818 and named after the Marquis of Worcester, elder brother of the then governor of the Cape, Lord Charles Somerset. This is a thriving commercial and industrial centre and the largest town in the Breede River valley.
The countryside is fertile, with prosperous farms.
Grapes are a major crop grown in great quantities. It has 17 co-ops and a number of brandy distilleries. The Pioneer School in Church Street is an outlet for products hand crafted by the blind.

The Barry merchant family laid out Barrydale as a town in 1882. It served as a trading centre for this productive fruit-growing region. In 1921 Barrydale became a municipality.