What's inside?
* Pass of the week
* Fresh ideas for 2023
* Garden Route Tour - Day 3
* Seven Sisters Tour - Day 1
* Cederberg Day Trip
* Podcast
Pass of the week
The Kouberg Pass is a very steep pass that loses 446m of altitude over just 4.8 km on a minor gravel road (P2262) which takes vehicles down to the Moravian settlement of Wupperthal in the central Cederberg area. The road is quite narrow in places and very steep on the concrete sections. A lower gear should be engaged to make use of engine compression to save on brakes overheating. The link below will take you directly to the featured pass page where you can enjoy the video and all information normally reserved for subscribers only. This pass ties in nicely with the information further on in this newsletter as well as with the podcast.
* * Kouberg Pass (P2262) - Western Cape * *
Fresh ideas for 2023
We've been working for about two years on a project that started during Covid and is now on the brink of being launched. We will be adding a menu link to a new section of the website which we believe will resonate with our readers. There will be two separate websites, which will be accessible from the mother site. One will be Lighthouses South Africa and the other will be Shipwrecks South Africa. These two projects dovetail perfectly with one another, yet are different in their respective challenges. They will operate under their own domains but will be accessible via the MPSA site
The Lighthouses project will be launched first followed by Shipwrecks in 2023. An enormous amount of research is required on the shipwrecks project, so it will take time, but our aim is to have a comprehensive and interesting resource to add another perspective to the MPSA overall package and engage on a different level with our subscribers and followers.
We are also trying out a new format with our newsletters by putting the Pass of the Week at the top of the page, rather than the bottom. Feel to let us know how you feel about these changes. We welcome constructive criticism.
Garden Route Tour - Day 3
With warm sunshine and blue skies we set off from the Wilderness Hotel by ascending the very steep Heights Road in Wilderness with a detour to the Map of Africa view site. It's a popular spot for tourists, plus it's the launch site for the paragliders that are frequently seen gliding effortlessly in the lift above Dolphin Point and Wilderness Beach. On the landward side of the view point the Kaaimans River has carved a deep gorge through the mountains, forming a remarkably similar outline to the southern half of Africa.
About 20 years ago your scribe did a one day paragliding course, which started with a few short dune flights and culminated in a solo flight from Map of Africa with a fairly decent landing on Wilderness Beach. It was a memorable day!
We regrouped and headed back to the 7 Passes Road, only this time we turned into the east, ticking off Thomas Bain's famous passes one by one: Touw River, Hoogekraal, Karatara, Homtini and Phantom passes. We had completed Silver River and Kaaimansgat passes the previous day.
The little village of Karatara, perched quietly atop the plateau just north of Sedgefield, carries the wistful whisper of the woodcutters' 1939 dispossession. The government, without notice, withdrew their woodcutting permits, ostensibly to protect the total eradication of the indigenous forests, and pensioned off the suddenly jobless, homeless woodcutters to this remote settlement, where their descendants have remained.
The Homtini Pass was the toughest of the 7 Passes to build and Bain spent much longer on this pass than he expected. In the meantime, his brother in law, Adam de Smidt had made swift progress completing the first 5 passes in the same time span that Bain built two. Lying 6th in the string of 'Seven Passes' between George and Knysna, the narrow, gravel Homtini Pass covers 5 km of wonderfully scenic driving, descending to the river from which it takes its name, and ascends up the eastern side to terminate at the Rheenendal Timber Mill. The name is apparently of Khoi origin and means either "mountain honey" or "difficult passage".
The prolific writer and passionately South African traveloguer, Thomas Victor Bulpin, penned these words about the pass:
" A classic piece of old time road making with dramatic views and the indefinable elegance of its curves. The river itself is a gorgeous torrent of amber water, tumbling down from the deep forests of the mountain slopes to the north"
Homtini done and dusted, (and there was plenty of the latter) we reached the tar section which is particularly attractive as the road winds through verdant farms around the Rheenedal area. The village essentially revolves around the timber mill which is the major employer and best known for the production of quality yellowwood and blackwood furniture.
The weather was being very kind to us as we descended the Phantom Pass and arrived in good time at the Knysna Lagoon. Our destination was a special lunch date at East Head Cafe, which is located right on the rocks at The Heads. The food was (as always) excellent as our group savoured the amazing views.
Knysna Heads viewed from West Head (Featherbed Bay)
After lunch we drove up Coney Glen Road (a suburban pass) and parked at the top, where we took a short walk down to the elevated view point and boardwalk. We couldn't have picked a better day as the spectacle of the ocean surging through The Heads, drew hundreds of camera shutter clicks.
Our destination for the evening was Belvidere Estate. We arrived there fairly early, with sufficient time for a walk or just relaxing in the grounds of the lovely estate. This venue received high scores from all our guests. The original manor house dates back to 1834. The purchase price of the farm was £750. Belvidere is spelled with an “i” as opposed to an “e”. It means “a platform, tower or raised place commanding a beautiful view”. Belvedere is of Italian origin – bella (beautiful) and vedere (to see). The British favoured the Latin root “videre” and because George Rex was a lawyer he chose that version.
Belvidere Manor Estate / Photo: Trygve Roberts
The Manor House, and the little church are heritage sites. Also within the grounds is a very old pub, known simply as 'The Bell'. It was a too tight a fit trying to get our group into the little pub, so we arranged for our dinner to be served in the Manor House dining room.
(Next week: A day of forests and peaks)
Seven Sisters Tour
The inaugural Seven Sisters Tour was undoubtedly a great success and will be repeated in 2023 with a few small tweaks. This tour could never have happened without the cooperation of the Mountain Club of South Africa, Cape Nature, Hawequas Scouts, and Tolcon. It took a lot of effort and hundreds of emails and phone calls getting the timing and facilities to work together in a seamless manner. The real work behind the scenes was by Kuba Miszewski (MCSA) and Deon Rossouw (Director of Cape Nature)
The tour was fully booked and we had 26 guests spread over 14 vehicles to look after. The rendezvous point was at the Florida farm stall at the junction of the R44 & R45 near Wellington. The staff there were ready for our group at 08.00 for coffee. After the radios were fitted, we got the group started with a briefing of what to expect for the day and the basics of convoy driving.
Our route headed directly to Paarl, where we took a dusty drive along the Jan Philips Mountain Road. It's basically a contour road that runs all along the Paarlberg. Jan Phillips was a mover and shaker in terms of wagon building in the 1800's and the family were respected for their hard work, quality of craftmanship and determination in setting the town up as a prominent business centre in the Boland.
We routed past the Paarl Mountain Reserve, the three famous granite outcrops of Bretagne, Gordon & Paarl as well as the Botanical Gardens before arriving at the amphitheatre and the Taal Monument. The Afrikaans Language Monument is located on a hill overlooking Paarl. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it commemorates the semi-centenary of Afrikaans being declared an official language of South Africa separate from Dutch.
The monument consists of various tapering structures of a convex and concave nature, symbolising the influences of different languages and cultures on Afrikaans itself, as well as political developments in South Africa, as follows:
- Clear West – the European heritage of the language
- Magical Africa – the African influences on the language
- Bridge – between Europe and Africa
- Afrikaans – the language itself
- Republic – declared in 1961
- Malay language and culture
We joined up with the tar road descending down to Main Road in Paarl, then connecting up with the N1 to arrive at 10 am on the dot to meet our Tolcon guide, Hopewell. A senior technical representative arrived and ran a short, interesting talk around the facts and myths regarding the tunnels.
L-R: Trygve Roberts (MPSA), Japie Pienaar (Tolcon); Kate Hackett (Guest); Hopewell Magobonga (Tolcon)
We coupled up Tolcon's Toyota Quantum with a two way radio and Hopewell led us into the western side of the service tunnel. Immediately the atmosphere changes as the lighting in the service tunnel is quite basic, casting an eeirie set of dark patches and shadows, in the process amplifying the sheer size of the excavation. It is immediately obvious that the tunnel is much wider and higher than the existing one, but we were assured that both tunnels are the same size.
Deep inside the north bore under 1000m of solid rock. The white patch on the ground is a projected hologram from the Land Rover Defender. / Photo: MPSA Tour Group.
Once the side panels and roof liners are fitted, the size is reduced considerably. Water runs straight through the rocks and onto the roadway (which is gravel). The volume of water is much higher in winter, but the mountain oozes water all year round and runs in shallow channels dug on either side of the roadway. We stopped at the 3rd emergency exit to experience a number of interesting things. The first is how cold and windy it is in the service tunnel. This is caused by pressure and temperature variances and the air is always moving one way or the other.
Huge sets of mobile scaffolding lie on one side of the tunnel. These were used in the original boring work and have been there since 1987. The distance from the north bore to the south bore is constantly the same throughout the 3,9 km length of the tunnels. It's approximately 30m. The emergency escape route doors were opened for us as we experienced the significant change in temperature between the two tunnels. The hot air comes entirely from vehicle exhausts. Massive extractor fans are electronically controlled to activate when CO2 levels reach a certain level. The service tunnel has seen some interesting events including a road running race and a doomsday type movie that was filmed inside the tunnel a few years ago.
What was interesting to learn that in the 35 years the Huguenot Tunnel has been in operation, only two fatalities have occurred inside the tunnel - a remarkable safety record! The tunnel experience was a huge hit with our guests and the two Tolcon guides were peppered with questions when we stopped on the eastern side for a break. Our convoy then managed to get back safely onto the N1 westbound via the parking area for the hikers near the weighbridge station.
(Next week: Seven Sisters Pass)
PODCAST:
We discuss a one day/500 km sign-fixing loop through the Cederberg as well as the recent Seven Sisters Tour.
Click here to listen (25 mins)
Trygve Roberts
Editor
"Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it most never use it.”