The region has a predominantly Mediterranean climate.  There are long summer days in January and February and the towns and villages are full of holiday-makers. In February and March, as summer draws to a close, the sheep are lambing and being sheared, the wine grapes are harvested and  birds and butterflies are aflutter.  The prevailing wind is a steady South Easter, which allows for the sailors and kite-flyers to indulge in their sports. April and May are the Autumnal months, when the farmers are busy ploughing and planting for the winter wheat crop.  The hot days become milder and there could well be showers and surprise north-west winds which throw a refreshing 'champagne air' mist along the coast. June and July are the months of the Cape Winter.  Although generally the weather is mild, there could well be a shower of snow on the mountain tops.  The winter fynbos greens are a treat.  The Southern Right Whales come to the coast from the southern oceans where they can calve and mate in the calmer waters.  They can be seen from June to November in great numbers all along the coast of the Overberg.  Interesting birds such albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels have also been seen not far off the coast. Spring begins in August.  The fynbos is at its best at this time of the year and most Overberg towns have a flower show to celebrate this spectacular Floral Kingdom.  Apple, pear, plum and youngberry blossoms can be seen in the fruit-growing regions of Elgin, while the endangered Blue Crane frequents the huge undulating grain-growing farmlands in large flocks.  Breeding pairs can be spotted anytime between September and December. 

Overberg literally means 'over the mountain' and it derives from the early settlers in Cape Town who went over the mountains by ox and wagon to see what was on the other side. They found a fertile coastal belt which now is intensively farmed with fields of wheat and herds of sheep. Some considerate farmers have even put signs up on the edges of their fields to tell travellers what kind of crop they are looking at. The villages and towns are all quite charming, some nestling amongst the mountain ranges and others in lowland river valleys.

The Overberg coast, also called the Whale Coast, has the distinction of splitting the oceans. At Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of the continent, the waters are cleaved into the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. The foothills of the mountains, covered in a wealth of indigenous fynbos, roll down through green and gold wheat and sheep country to the lighthouse here. Apart from the cry of seagulls and the endless beat of the surf along a holiday-friendly shoreline - which also gives rest to the wreckage of scores of luckless ships - silence prevails and solitude is easy to find.