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[Video cover photo: Trygve Roberts ]

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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: To approach from the west as we have produced it, head east out of De Rust on the tarred R341 for 20 km to arrive at the northern end of the poort.

To approach from the south, starting at the junction of the N9 and the R341 at GPS S33.503688 E23.228800, drive west aliong the R341 for 53.5 km to arrive at the southern start of the poort.

Pass Description: On your approach to the poort from the De Rust side, you will pass by the Stomprdrift Dam which is a combined multi-arch and gravity type dam located on the Olifants River near De Rust, Western Cape, South Africa. It was constructed in 1965 and hosts a resort where camping is vailable and boats a 25 km. The dam is the biggest dam in the Little Karoo region and well worth a visit if you have the time.

The poort becomes obvious from some distance away after a long straight drive where the natural gap that the poort offers an easy route wothout having to climb much. In fact there is only an altitude variance of 8m. The road makes a single S-curve with wide angles, so there's time to look a round and enjoy the geology. The two dominant ridges on either side of the road are the Rooikrans [662m] on the left (east) and after which the poort is named and the Rooirant [705m] on the right (west). The tiny little river that has carved  this poort out over the millenia is the Marthinusrivier, which forms a confluence with the much bigger Olifantsrivier a few kilometres further towards the north west.

As the road straightens out, a small side stream is crossed which marks the end of the poort at the 1,1 km mark. Continue straight on for 53.5 km to reach the junction with the N9. 

Fact File:

Route Map:

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• Choose either Map View or Satellite View (overlaid on the map detail.)
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• Detailed written and printable directions.
• Drag the 'little orange man' icon onto the pass for a complete 360° tiltable "street view".

Route files:

||Click to download: Rooikranspoort (R341)  (Note - This is a .kmz file which can be opened in Google earth and most GPS software systems)