What's inside?

* Tours

* Pass of the week

* Garden Route Tour (Day 5)

* Kouga Baviaans Tour (Day 1)

* Podcast 

Tours 

All tours currently on our shop page are now sold out (Ben 10, Lesotho & Wild Coast). We are busy working on our programme for 2023, so for those of you champing at the bit to join a tour, the new 2023 calendar will be published soon. 

Our Kouga-Baviaans Tour was a massive success with a really super group of guests who gelled right from the start. Having an absence of punctures or mechanical failures was an added bonus. We'll be doing a full report on this tour over the next few weeks, so watch this space.

The final tour of the year - the Ben 10 Eco Challenge will take place from the 10th to 15th December. As always keep an eye on our Facebook page for daily updates, videos and photos.

Pass of the Week

Our featured pass this week is the Suuranysberg Pass, which dovetails with our report on the Kouga Baviaans Tour. This was the first pass of the 4 day tour and quickly got guest's mojo up and running. The pass connects Kareedouw with the farming areas to the north of the Suuranysberg mountains.

* *   Suuranysberg Pass   * *

Garden Route Tour - Day 4 

Our final day was an easy one, covering the relatively short distance between Plettenberg Bay and Storms River Mouth, so we called for a leisurely start of 09.30 and headed east up the Keurboomsrivierhoogte Pass, making sure we complied with the ever changing speed limits along that section, before arriving at The Crags, where we took a right, heading to Birds of Eden. We gave our guests three options:

1. Birds of Eden
2. Monkey Land
3. Elephant Sanctuary

The majority opted for Birds of Eden and weren't disappointed. It's a bit like walking into the Jurassic Park film set with a large variety of birds to see, but beware some of the parrots tend to nibble at one's toes!

We regrouped after 2 hours and headed down the Grootrivier Pass - another of Thomas Bain's masterpieces which he constructed in 1876. The so-called Great Fire of 1869 that swept through the Tsitsikamma forests from Storms River to Riversdale, in a bizarre way made Bain's task a whole lot easier, as the dead trees were easy to remove.

The Bloukrans Pass has the potential to be a major tourist attraction / Photo: MPSA

It was heartening to see roadworks taking place on the pass. Thank you Western Cape government! Sections of the roadway which showed signs of subsidence, have now been stabilised and resurfaced. The pass meanders down the wide valley of the Grootrivier, plunging ever deeper into the forests, where giant Yellowwoods reach for the sun, bedecked with 'Old man's beard'. There are a number of view-sites on the western descent, but none which could cope with 13 vehicles.

Instead we turned right at the foot of the pass, following the river through the little village of Nature's Valley to the beach, where we parked off to enjoy a leisurely lunch. Whilst there we had a surprise visit from Paul Richards, who is a client of MPSA and resides in the village. 

It was time to start driving, as the day's highlight awaited - the old Bloukrans Pass. We ascended up the steep and winding pass and levelled off for a short distance before crossing the N2. The "Road Closed" signs have been removed, the trees and debris have been cleared and the pass is looking great. What a pleasant surprise. Once again, the Western Cape government have reinstated the road to an acceptable standard all the way to the white bridge which has been repainted, but on the other side of the bridge (Eastern Cape), it's a different matter altogether.

Half the original road width has been overgrown with bushes, trees and small rock-falls litter the roadway on many sections. The road is however, not dangerous and can be negotiated by driving slowly and carefully. On the eastern end the earth mound has been removed, so exiting the old pass is straight forward.

(Next week: Storms River Bridge and the Tsitsikamma National Park)

Kouga Baviaans Tour

We made several changes to the format of this tour. The original tour started in Joubertina and included a double pass first day of Brakkloof and Kouga-Kleinrivier passes. For the 2022 version we removed the original first day in favour of an extra day in the Baviaanskloof proper. One of our guests had also suggested we try the Assegaaibosch Country Lodge in Kareedouw. A little research showed good reviews, so we changed our starting point to Kareedouw. 

The staff at the lodge were friendly and attentive, and the drive to the lodge from the R62 was enhanced by a herd of springbuck grazing quietly next to the dam close to the entrance. Radios were installed as all the guests were accounted for, after which we had our standard driver's briefing. All but 4 were repeat clients, so the group gelled very quickly - no doubt helped along by good Cape wine. On the menu was lamb shank and chicken cooked in honey and mustard. A great way to start the tour. The lodge was neat and clean and the service exemplary.

Day 1 - Kareedouw to Zandvlakte

The first day involved a fair bit of travelling with much of it being below 40 kph, so we asked for an 08.30 starting time. Our first pass started within a kilometre of the lodge - the Suuranysberg Pass (see our Pass of the Week in this newsletter). 

This interesting gravel pass is well above the national average in terms of length at 7,2 km and ascends 352 metres up the southern side of the Suuranysberg mountain to summit at 562m ASL. The pass offers excellent vistas over the Krommerivier valley, which it follows for most of its length, and the town of Kareedouw is also visible from the pass.

The pass is peppered with 54 bends, corners and curves of which three are semi-hairpins and a further four exceed 90 degrees radius. The condition of this road can vary greatly depending on when the last maintenance was done, as well as recent rainfall. Mostly it can be driven in any vehicle in fair weather conditions.

The Suuranysberg range is about 16 km in length and runs along the east-west axis, forming the southern watershed into the Krommerivier valley as well as the northern watershed of the Kouga River. The range has peaks which reach a maximum height of 750m. The pass is obviously named after the mountain which it traverses.

It was a gentle introduction to gravel pass driving, with fairly dusty conditions resulting in our convoy spreading out; requiring regular stops to regroup. The weather was about as perfect as what you could wish for, as we crested the first pass and traversed a long plateau section amongst quiet farms.

Kouga River Pass views / Photo: MPSA

Before long the Kouga River Pass beckoned. We pulled off at the first sharp left hand bend and walked to the lip of the ravine for gorgeous views of the Kouga River valley. The single timber chalet near the low level bridge at the bottom of the pass is in an idyllic setting, but we have now established that it is privately owned and not available to rent.

On the right hand side of the river just after crossing the bridge is a lovely campsite, which is part of the Ragelsrivier farm. As things happened whilst we were ascending the northern side of the pass, a lady in a Prado was approaching and flagged us down. She was/is the Ragelrivier owner's wife and invited us to visit the farm and to see the new camping facilities her husband, Erik, was building.

The Moordenaarkloof Pass is something very different and it sets several records. It's the only access road down to Rachelsrivier farm and with it comes the story of the murders that gave this strange, isolated place its name. 

This is quite a unique pass as it holds a number of extreme statistics under its rutted gravel surface. It's a short pass at only 3.7 km but packs a staggering 55 bends, corners and curves into that length, which works out at one bend every 67 metres! There is no other pass in South Africa to equal this!

Besides the large number of corners, this pass is also steep with an average gradient of 1:14 and some very steep sections at 1:5. The scenery is fantastic as the pass follows the course of a tributary of the Nooitgedacht River, but the cherry on top of all these impressive figures is the ghoulish history of this pass, where a murder took place about 200 years ago - and it's how the kloof got its name.

The farm at the end of the pass - Ragelsrivier / Photo: Ragelsrivier

The history and folklore of Moordenaarskloof: Many of our passes and poorts carry stories of murder, mayhem, jealousy, revenge and ghosts that roam the roads on dark stormy nights. The story behind this kloof is so well documented that there is more than likely some level of truth behind it.

Most of the kloof falls within the borders of the original Jammersfontein farm, where the central figure of Jan Prinsloo farmed in the 1700's. Legend has it that Prinsloo, a large and strong man was particularly fond of his prized stud horses and was well known in the valley as a breeder. On the other end of the scale he had a reputation for being harsh and cruel with his servants.

Prinsloo pushed the limits of discipline on his farm when he punished two of the Khoi women and a child for absconding from the farm without permission (ostensibly to visit relatives) by tying them to a tree, flogging them, after which they were shot. After this incident, all his Khoi servants fled the farm for the area between the Sundays and Great Fish River, where they joined up with the Xhosa whose tactic it was to plunder local farms and so drive the settlers further west.

Could these horses be descendants of Prinsloo's stock?

This insurrection soon gravitated to the Langkloof. Prinsloo had joined forces with other farmers to leave the disturbed area and was some 15 miles away from his farm, when all the farmers in the group were attacked in an ambush. All the farmers were killed, except for Prinsloo who fled back towards his farm. His six servants (all on stolen horses), caught up with him inside the kloof, where he was overpowered and killed. The Khois then looted Prinsloo's house and went back to join their Xhosa unit, but all of them later died, when the insurrection was quelled by government forces.

The kloof quickly became known as Moordenaarskloof.

When you reach the final fork just before the river crossing, turn sharp right and see if you can find the ruins of Prinsloo's house. The ruins are in dense bush and difficult to locate, but they are about 1 km from this intersection and quite close to the river. Another half a kilometre down the road there are grave sites of British soldiers who died during the Anglo-Boer War. The little valley is surrounded by steep cliffs and the clear river flows by forming a beautiful landscape - a far cry from the turbulent history that played itself out here hundreds of years ago. The murder apparently took place on January 15th and the story goes that at midnight each January the sound of horses hoofs thundering along the kloof can be heard, amidst anguished cries.

As we turned our convoy around at the farm, the owner arrived in an old Suzuki SJ410 cradling his plump and contented 2 year old son in his arms. Erik chatted to our group extensively about the farm and his plans on making it a first class camping venue.

Next week: Ragelsrivier to Baviaans Lodge

PODCAST

We chat about Day 1 of the Kouga Baviaans Tour. CLICK TO LISTEN

Trygve Roberts
Editor

"Clutter is the physical manifestation of unmade decisions fueled by procrastination"