This enjoyable and very scenic gravel pass on the northern slopes of the Swartberg mountains, is the middle one of a trio of passes and poorts on the P1721. It connects the farm Kleinvlei in the north with the Sandkraal and Witrivier farms in the south. The pass can be driven by all vehicles and although fairly steep in places, should present no problems in fair weather. This is not an official pass.
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Note: Google Earth software reads the actual topography and ignores roads, cuttings, tunnels, bridges and excavations. The Google Earth vertical-profile animation generates a number of parallax errors, so the profile is only a general guide of what to expect in terms of gradients, distance and elevation. The graph may present some impossible and improbably sharp spikes, which should be ignored.
Digging into the details:
Getting there: Anyone driving this pass, will also be driving the Aapsrivierpoort and Bloupuntrivierpoort (also known as the Middelwaterpoort). To find the northern start of this pass, please read up on the Aapsrivierpoort, which leads directly to the northern start of the Kleinvlei Pass.
Once you have driven the Aapsrivierpoort, continue along the P1721 for 1,7 km where you will reach a fork at the Kleinvlei farmstead. Take the left hand fork. The road starts ascending gently and within a few hundred metres swings sharply away to the left into an elongated U shaped bend which helps maintain altitude through a side ravine. The middle part of this bend is extremely sharp and turns through 160 degrees. Once the U-bend has been completed the heading resumes into the south-west.
At the 1,5 km point, the road drives through between two hills via a small neck and bends sharply to the left in a 90 degree turn at a large farm dam. The dam can be seen on the right as the road swings through an S-bend and begins ascending at a gradient of 1:15 at the 2 km mark, where the direction also changes into the south-east to rapidly reach the summit point of 1042m ASL. If you have the time, pull off the road here and enjoy the outstanding views. The entire right hand side of the scene is dominated by the vast bulk of the Swartberg range, whilst ahead the road can be seen heading straight down a spine of the hill you are on, where the Witrivier cuts across the road right at the bottom of the valley at the farm of the same name. It really is a sight for sore eyes.
Looking east from the summit / Photo - Trygve Roberts
The descent is straight-forward and offers gentle bends and no change in pitch. It's a long, straight descent of 2 km at a gradient of 1:10, losing a total of 163m of altitude. The pass ends at the crossing of the Witrivier, which flows in a north-easterly direction into the Klaarstroom dam, and from there flows into the bigger Grootrivier - which is the main river that carved out the majestic Meiringspoort.
Continue past the buildings of the Witrivier farm towards the Bloupunt farm to locate the final poort - the Bloupuntrivierpoort. Please note that there are one or two farm gates which must be closed after passing through, but most of the farm boundaries are separated by cattle grids.
The road less travelled - a fine example / Photo - Andrzej Pacynski
Fact File:
| GPS START | S33.348692 E22.452422 |
| GPS SUMMIT | S33.362258 E22.450486 |
| GPS END | S33.368260 E22.470236 |
| AVE GRADIENT | 1:29 |
| MAX GRADIENT | 1:10 |
| ELEVATION START | 946m |
| ELEVATION SUMMIT | 1042m |
| ELEVATION END | 879m |
| HEIGHT GAIN/LOSS | 163m |
| DISTANCE | 4,69 km |
| DIRECTION - TRAVEL | South-East |
| TIME REQUIRED | 15 minutes |
| SPEED LIMIT | 60 kph |
| SURFACE | Gravel (P1721) |
| DATE FILMED | 26.05.2015 |
| TEMPERATURE | 20C |
| NEAREST TOWN | De Rust (24 km) |
Route Map:
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Route files:
||Click to download: Kleinvlei Pass (Note - This is a .kmz file which can be opened in Google Earth and most GPS software)
