There are three Blounek passes in South Africa and all of them are of a minor nature. This one is located on the gravel road between Merweville in the north and the Koup railway siding off the N1 in the south. It's not much of a pass at 2 km in length with a small altitude variance of 42m producing an easy average gradient of 1:48 with the steepest sections reaching 1:11.
The pass only has 2 bends and if you have not plotted the start and end points into your GPS, you might drive over it without realising it's an official pass.
The best reason for driving this pass is that it will take you to the little village of Merweville, which is packed with interesting buildings, fascinating history and earthy, friendly people.
We have not physically driven this pass ourselves as yet, so our description and research is based on available resources and government maps. The possibility exists that you might encounter locked farm gates. Make sure you have sufficient fuel to backtrack.
The full content of this article is restricted to subscribers.
Subscribe for only R550 a year and get full access to our website (936+ mountain passes), including the videos, the full text of all mountain passes articles, fact-file, interactive map, directions and route files.
New: Lifelong subscription. You'll never have to worry about annual renewals or price increases. Enjoy a Lifetime Subscription to our website for just R5,000 once-off.
Subscribe Now (Lifetime subscription)
If you have already subscribed to our site, you can Log in to view the full article.
You will gain full access to the best parts of the website, which include:
- the full content (non subscribers only see about 10% of the text) of 936+ mountain passes,
- plus you get the video(s),
- Fact File,
- Interactive Map,
- Directions
- and the downloadable Route File.
You will also get our weekly newsletter packed with the latest interesting passes information delivered to your email each Thursday.
Paid subscribers qualify for 10% off the digital downloads from our online shop.
You can visit five ‘Open’ pass pages on Mountain Passes South Africa to evaluate what you’ll be getting:
