Quid Intus Est?

* Happy New Year

2023 Tours Calendar

* Changes and plans for 2023

* Vision

* Kouga Baviaans Tour (Final Day)

* Pass of the Week


From us to you

May the New Year bring you health and travel dreams fulfilled. Do that trip you've been thinking about. Every year comes with its challenges and wins, and you’ve been with us every step of the way. Thank you for keeping us in your corner! 

Happy New Year!


Tours Calendar for 2023

Here is a brief summary of our tours calendar for 2023.

  • January: No tours
  • February 11th: Atlantis Sand Driving Novice Training
  • March 12 - 18: Lesotho (Fully booked)
  • April (Easter weekend) 7 -10: Tankwa Karoo
  • May 9 - 20: Wild Coast V6 Tour (Fully booked)
  • June 25th: Grabouw 4x4 Novice Training Day.
  • July 10 - 15 : Swartberg Classic 
  • August 8 - 12: Garden Route Tour
  • September 23 - 24: Seven Sisters Tour
  • October 10 - 14: Kouga Baviaans Tour
  • November 1 - 11: Wild Coast V7 Tour (Bookings are open)
  • December 5 - 9: Ben 10 V7 Tour

We will be adding the new tours at the rate of two per week until they are all uploaded. If you wish to get a priority booking in advance, pop us an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Our vision for the year ahead

The festive season break allows us a bit of creative time to plan ahead and review the year gone by. There are going to be some changes to the format of the newsletters and we will most likely be publishing them bi-monthly next year. We are also working on doing audio-visual newsletters, which should prove to be popular. We intend running an experimental version in the near future to test the waters with our subscribers and followers.

Some good news for our regulars - we have decided to keep the subscription price at R350 for renewals as a loyalty reward. New subscriptions will have a 10% increase.

We will be stepping up pass filming trips for 2023. We have just acquired a drone, which will be used to add some extra pizazz to our pass videos. The first of these should start being added by March.

Our recent story about the rescue of the three bikers off the Bastervoetpad Pass touched hearts all over the world and has subsequently been republished in Australia, Brazil, Die Burger, Getaway Magazine and some smaller publications. Its had over half a million views on our Facebook page. Just a few days later we were contacted by an anxious parent who said her son and his wife on two motorcycles had gone missing and had not reported in as promised. Our social media presence worked quickly and within two hours we had traced the couple to Patensie thanks to followers of our Facebook page - They were alive and well. They were a tad embarrassed and said they simply had no signal with which to communicate. There are lots of lessons to be learned from these events.


Kouga Baviaans Tour (Final Day)

We had a later than normal start on the final day of the tour as we regrouped the convoy outside the Ripple Hill Hotel. Every day we do a radio check before starting off as a "roll call" to make sure everyone is present and accounted for. That day there was one driver missing. A quick search revealed that he was still fast asleep in his room. Our start was delayed by an hour as we waited for him to shower, pack and get into his car, whilst the group watched to the to-ing and fro-ing of the locals heading to town.

We all had full tanks of fuel as we headed off to the Elands River Road and the Geelhoutboom Pass which climbs relentlessly from 86m to 826m over 15,4 km

One of the lovely views on the Geelhoutboom Pass / Photo: MPSA

This easy gravel pass can be driven in any vehicle, although like any gravel pass, things get quite slippery during and after rain. It boasts an impressive height gain of 730m, which places it in position 20 in the biggest altitude gaining passes. The 48 bends, corners and curves will keep you busy as each bend reveals new vistas over the citrus farms of the Gamtoos Valley and the densely wooded mountains to the east.

The road services a number of farms and provides an alternative and much more attractive route to Uitenhage. It also is the access road to the '4x4 only' Antoniesberg Pass and Steytlerville and forms part of the T3 Baviaanskloof Tourism Route system.

We stopped at the steel tower near the summit for a leg stretch and a few photos, before turning left onto the two spoor track which rocks and rolls its way westwards to the Antoniesberg Pass, the main highlight of the day. The drive along the ridges is magnificent amongst ericas and proteas, with the distinctive profile of the Cockscomb Mountains to the north.

After good overnight rains, the roads were nicely damped down, with very little dust to worry about. After about an hour's driving, we arrived at the eastern lip of the canyon carved out by the Grootrivier. The river has a huge drainage area, with its source in the mountains between Beaufort West and Aberdeen. The unpredictable rainfall in the area means the river levels can vary greatly from almost no flow to a dangerous torrent during the rainy season.

As a consequence the crossing of the Grootrivier at the bottom of the Antoniesberg Pass is always an unknown factor as to whether the bridgeless crossing will be too deep, in which case a very long detour is required to get back into the west at Steytlerville.

The Grootrivier at the lowest point of the Antoniesberg Pass / Photo: MPSA

We met a small biker group accompanied by a 4x2 Mazda "bakkie" near the top and shared the shady banks of the river as a lunch break. What was impressive was that the Mazda was driven by a very young girl and although she said she was nervous, they completed the route without incident. This would not have been the case had it been raining.

The drive-out sees a big improvement in road conditions, resulting a most enjoyable drive through the mountains, heading to our final destination of Steytlerville, where we filled the Royal Hotel to capacity. A thunderstorm gave us a final nod to remind us how vulnerable we are in the great outdoors, as radios were collected and boxed. This was followed by an extra long happy hour and a lovely dinner. Two of our guests celebrated birthdays on the tour - Stephanie Fischer and Fritz Bieri. A first on an MPSA tour. Another fabulous tour done and dusted.

MPSA birthday celebrations on the final night at the Royal Hotel in Steytlerville

 

PASS OF THE WEEK

Our featured pass this week fits in with our main story. The name confuses many people, who steadfastly refer to it as the Grootrivierpoort. This thanks to a large sign near the farmstead at the river which reads GROOTRIVIERPOORT. That is technically correct of course, but the pass itself has its own name, which neatly avoids confusion with the real Grootrivierpoort just a few kilometres downstream in the Baviaanskloof on the R 332.

 

* *   A N T O N I E S B E R G    P A S S   * *

 


Trygve Roberts
Editor

"A smart man must be big enough to admit his mistakes; smart enough to profit from them and strong enough to correct them"