Caledon is a town in the Overberg

Overberg

Overberg is a district in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the east...

 region in the Western Cape

Western Cape

The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

 province of South Africa, located about 100 kilometres (62.1 mi) east of Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

. it had a population of 10,650. It is located in, and the seat of, the Theewaterskloof Local Municipality

Theewaterskloof Local Municipality

Theewaterskloof Municipality is a local municipality located within the Overberg District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2007, the population was 86,719. Its municipality code is WC031...

.

Caledon is situated on the N2 national route, 113 kilometres (70.2 mi) by road from central Cape Town. At Caledon the N2 is met by the R316 from Arniston

Arniston, Western Cape

Arniston is a small seaside settlement in the Overberg region on the Cape South coast, close to Cape Agulhas, the southern-most tip of Africa. Prior to the loss of the Arniston, it was known as Waenhuiskrans, an Afrikaans name meaning literally "Wagon house cliff", after a local sea cave large...

 and Bredasdorp

Bredasdorp

Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa.-History:The...

, and the R320 from Hermanus

Hermanus

Hermanus is a town with 49,000 inhabitants on the southern coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is famous as a place from which to watch Southern Right whales, during the southern winter and spring and is a popular retirement town...

. It is also located on the Overberg branch railway line

Overberg branch line

The Overberg branch line is a railway line in the Western Cape, South Africa, that runs from Cape Town through Somerset West and Caledon to Bredasdorp.-Route:...

, 141 kilometres (87.6 mi) by rail from Cape Town station

Cape Town Railway Station

Cape Town railway station is the main railway station of the city of Cape Town, South Africa. It is located along Adderley and Strand Streets in the city's central business district....

.

The Caledon district is primarily an agricultural region. Most agricultural activities involve grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...

 production with a certain amount of stock farming

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....

. The town is locally well known for the Caledon Spa and Casino and for its rolling hills and yellow canola

Canola

Canola refers to a cultivar of either Rapeseed or Field Mustard . Its seeds are used to produce edible oil suitable for consumption by humans and livestock. The oil is also suitable for use as biodiesel.Originally, Canola was bred naturally from rapeseed in Canada by Keith Downey and Baldur R...

 fields in spring

Spring (season)

Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and...

.

The town has a Mediterranean climate

Mediterranean climate

A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

 of warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Temperatures are modified by its close proximity to the South Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

, just over the Kleinriviers Mountains to the south.

The writer Peter Dreyer

Peter Dreyer

Peter Richard Dreyer is the author of A Beast in View , The Future of Treason , A Gardener Touched with Genius: The Life of Luther Burbank Peter Richard Dreyer (born November 15, 1939) is the author of A Beast in View (London: André Deutsch), The Future of Treason (New York: Ballantine), A...

 was born in Caledon at the Caledon Baths Hotel in 1939.

Rhodesian government minister P. K. van der Byl

P. K. van der Byl

Pieter Kenyon Fleming-Voltelyn van der Byl, ID was a South African-born Rhodesian politician who served as the country's Foreign Minister from 1974 to 1979 as a member of the Rhodesian Front...

retired to Caledon and subsequently died there, in Fairfield.