What's inside?
* Garden Route Tour (report back)
* Gamkaskloof
* Die Hel
* Survivors
* Pass of the Week
Garden Route Tour
As you are reading this newsletter, we are on our final day of the Garden Route Tour. Today we are visiting a few of the local attractions near Plettenberg Bay (Kurland and The Crags), before descending down the Grootrivier Pass to visit beautiful Nature's Valley. Our route takes us over the old Bloukrans Pass then on for a visit to the Storms River Bridge.
Some interesting facts about this bridge is that the Paul Sauer Bridge, also known as the Storms River Bridge, is a deck arch bridge. The bridge is located on the Garden Route section of National Route 2, between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. At a maximum height of 120 metres above the Storms River, it was the highest concrete arch in Africa until the Bloukrans Bridge, 216 metres, opened on the same road in 1984. It was a pioneering engineering triumph for the (then) South African national Roads Dept.
The bridge was designed by Italian engineer Riccardo Morandi, and constructed by Concor between 1953 and 1956. It spans 100 metres. The main span of the bridge consists of a reinforced concrete arch structure spanning between two concrete abutments located on the western and eastern sides of the river. The deck of the bridge consists of three main spans, the centre span between the two abutments and the two approach spans up to the joint above the abutments. The reinforced concrete deck is supported by the arch by means of 12 sets three reinforced concrete columns or struts.
The main arch structure was constructed in a unique fashion: the complete arch was divided into four semi-arches which were built with climbing formwork in an essentially vertical position on opposite sides of the gorge. These were then rotated and lowered into position in pairs to meet at the centre, thus forming the completed arch structure.
Once we have completed our visit to the bridge, we back-track a bit and take the road down to the coast where we will be spending our final night of the tour at the Tsitsikamma National Park - a first for MPSA being able to negotiate accommodation at a SANPARKS venue for a large group. (It's much more difficult than you might think)
Tonight is Chappies night!
Swartberg Classic Tour - the adventure continues.
After an enjoyable break at the Teeberg view-site, we drove another 3 km to reach the turnoff to Gamkaskloof. Here we cleaned a trio of government signs a year and a half ago that had been vandalised by stickers, graffiti and bullets. It was great to note that the signs were all still looking neat, tidy and sticker free. The sign at the start of the road states that it's 37 km long and takes 2 hours. Do not be misled by that sign. It often takes much longer and cyclists in particular should not be lulled into a comfort zone, as the road ahead is long, bumpy and extremely undulating. Allow at least six hours to ride it on a bicycle if you are moderately fit.
Pleasure or pain? Depends on your steed....
Our group turned west and the long road to Die Hel began. The weather was amazing. We had chosen a perfect mid-winter weather window, which allowed for perfect touring conditions. There were no issues with any of the vehicles, including a 4x2 Renault Duster. We took our time, stopping often for short breaks and photos and eventually reached the summit of Elands Pass at around 12.00.
There was no traffic coming up the pass, so it was a safe and easy run down the amazing switchback peppered pass to arrive at the start of Gamkaskloof 15 minutes later. The valley is not at its prettiest at the moment with most of the fire-blacked trees standing in mute testimony to the wildfire that roared through the kloof in November, 2011. Most of the cottages either burned down or got severely damaged. The fire affected the Swartberg Nature Reserve cottages and campsites as well as the Fonteinplaas cottages and campsite. The cottages at the western end were spared from the inferno.
Rooi Piet
Piet Joubert talking to our group at Fonteinplaas.
We had booked lunch at Fonteinplaas with Marinette and Piet Joubert. She always makes a huge effort with her meals and the hospitality was first class as usual. We enjoyed our lunch under the trees next to the thatched restaurant and shop. Piet (known by locals and friends as Rooi Piet for his long ginger beard), surprised us with an impromptu talk about the history of the Die Hel. As a young man, he is a man for all seasons and a good bilingual orator - as he gently led his spellbound audience through the last 200 years in the kloof. He has written a book on the subject which is imminently due for publication and a second book is also underway.
Where this hard working farmer finds the time to write books is a mystery. Besides running the farm, rescuing cyclists, hikers and vehicles from the rough roads, driving into Oudtshoorn for supplies, rebuilding the burnt cottages and campsite, setting up a boutique gin distillery, being a father and husband - he still makes time to write. Hats off to Rooi Piet!
We stayed for longer than we had planned, finally getting going closer to 15.00. With the sunlight behind us, photography was excellent and again many photo stops were called as we eased our way back to the Swartberg Pass, reaching the summit right at sunset. We were the only cars on the pass as the sunset glowed red in the valley below us.
The journey down the southern side of the pass was very different as the light faded through a long and colourful twilight zone from oranges to deep indigo. We arrived at our overnight stop - the Swartberg Country Manor, just as darkness set in. It had been a marvellous day, so no-one was complaining.
Happy hour was, shall we say, very happy. Good food and good company are the right ingredients, but we still had one more day to look forward to on this thoroughly enjoyable tour.
The Swartberg Country Manor lies on the southern side of the Matjiesrivier and is a short distance along a good tarred road from the R328, just to the south of the Swartberg Pass. This is the second time we have stayed at this venue and can only speak highly of it. The buildings, gardens, rooms and restaurant are immaculately clean, which matches the professional and friendly service from the staff.
Next week: Lawsons Pass to Rooiberg Lodge.
PASS OF THE WEEK
The Elands Pass is on many people’s bucket list for its magnificent views, multiple hairpins, narrow width and steep, unguarded drop-offs. If you have any passengers suffering from acrophobia/vertigo, arrange that they can sit on the side of the vehicle furthest away from the drop-offs. You will need to move them after each switchback.
This pass descends a total of 477m over a distance of 4,7 km producing a very stiff average gradient of just under 1:10. You will have to deal with five very tight hairpin bends, and 49 other bends, corners and curves of varying degrees, but it is the very steep, unguarded drop-offs that tend to be unnerving for many drivers and passengers. The design of the pass is actually very good and there is no point where the gradient exceeds 1:7.
This pass, although fairly short ranks right up with the biggest and best passes in South Africa, attracting in excess of 10,000 page views each year. This is a bucket list pass and one that every adventurous traveller should do.
Trygve Roberts
Editor
"Knowledge is like underwear. It's useful to have but unnecessary to show it off"
