Old Postal Route

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Due to bad behaviour by some adventure motorcyclists, this route has been permanently closed by the farm owner of Achterfontein.You may still drive/ride the Kraaiberg Pass, but will have to turn back at the 19 km mark. Likewise from the eastern side you may only travel the first flat section up till the crossing of the Tra Tra River. Should this situation ever change, you will be the first to know. It is with deep regret that we have lost this treasured route, but we cannot blame the farmer. At MPSA we support all the farmers of South Africa. Under no circumstances should gate locks or fences be tampered with.  We have decided to leave this page open, so that anyone can at least still watch the videos and see what its all about. ~ Editor. 

The Old Postal Route is a basic gravel track of 53,2 km that connects the Biedouw Valley in the Cederberg with the Eilandsvlei farm near the R355 in the Tankwa Karoo. This was once a route used to deliver post between these two remote communities, but is apparently a myth. The real postal route is a footpath that follows the Tra Tra River to Wupperthal.

The route consists of two mountain passes separated by a long high altitude plateau and includes a bridgeless crossing of the Tra Tra and Doring Rivers at the eastern end. It is not suitable for normal cars. Four wheel drive with high clearance is essential and low range is an additional benefit to have at your disposal.

Most of the route is Grade 1 and fairly straight-forward to drive, but here and there a few tricky sections raise the bar to Grade 3, depending on weather conditions. The two most likely places drivers will have problems, is the crossing of the Tra-Tra and Doring Rivers and offroad navigation, as there are multiple unsigned intersections, so your navigation needs to be precise. Unless you have a GPS loaded with Tracks4Africa where you can see the route clearly, you will more than likely get lost. We don't recommend driving this route between June and October, when water levels in the rivers will probably be too high. In summer, the river crossing is usually bone dry.

The route will take between 4 to 6 hours to complete, depending on a  number of factors. There are cottages and camping available at Mertenshof near the western start and good camping can be enjoyed at Die Mond off the R355 at the opposite end of the route.

The route is best driven in a group in case of a breakdown. Take full recovery gear with as well as a puncture repair kit that you know how to use. If you enjoy remote gravel road driving, with huge vistas and a unique stillness you will find in few other places in South Africa, then this route is for you.