All aboard!?
* Tours & Trips
* Montagu Pass to be repaired.
* Outeniqua Choo Choo line up for tender/reinstatement
* Katberg Tour - Plenty of action and drama
* Hogsback - A community taking strain
* The Dusty Dashboard - Episode 4
* Ben 10 Eco Challenge - Day 5
* Wild Coast Tour - Day 6
Listen to an AI-generated discusion of this newsletter:
TRIPS & TOURS .... on the horizon.
APRIL 2025:
Next week we leave on our 4th Mountain Kingdom Tour (fully booked). The cosmos should be in full bloom making for good photography. We plan this trip for the month of April, so as to avoid the summer thunderstorms and the icy roads of winter. The weather in Lesotho is always something of a lottery, thanks to the high altitude and huge mountain ranges. If you want to follow the trip, please follow us on Facebook, where we will post daily updates.
JULY 2025:
The Great Karoo Tour was launched two weeks ago and is almost sold out. There is only one spot left. If you want to experience the rugged vastness of the Great Karoo, this tour will leave you enraptured.
AUGUST 2025:
Swartberg Tour
This tour has been perfected into a perfect blend of amazing scenery, rugged mountain passes, bundles of local history, good food, fine accommodation and all the enjoyment that being part of a group of like minded travellers could possibly want. There are no changes to the itinerary. We will be staying at Rooiberg Lodge, Bosch Luys Kloof Lodge, Swartberg Hotel, and Swartberg Country Manor. The tour will include a lunch down in Die Hel and a traverse of Lawsons Pass in the Gamkaberg Nature Reserve, finishing back at the Rooiberg Lodge.
The tour will take place from the 17th to the 23rd of August. We have advanced the dates by one month to enjoy the start of the spring flowers.
CLICK HERE TO BOOK ONLINE
SEPTEMBER 2025:
New! Cederberg Spring Tour - What to expect.
Our promised tour to the Cederberg is taking shape fast with bookings opening within a week or two. The basic itinerary will start with a meet & greet at Val du Charonne wine estate in Wellington where we will enjoy a hearty winter dinner and sample some of the Boland's finest.
The next day we will drive over Bain's Kloof Pass and Michell's Pass to Ceres, then up the Gydo Pass to Op die Berg where all vehicles will need to top up on fuel, before entering the Cederberg from the southern side via two big gravel passes. The next 4 nights on this tour will be based at Kromrivier farm (Cederberg Park), where guests will stay in modern chalets and luxury tents. We trialled one of the luxury tents when we did the recce trip for this tour in February and they are really excellent with all modern amenities, beautiful bathrooms and an indoor wood burner for those chilly Cederberg evenings.
Wolfberg Arch is a surreal spot at sunset
September is wild-flower month and we can expect to see plenty of flowers on this trip, which will include a stop in the beautiful Biedouw Valley.
The next day we will explore the nearby Stadsaal Caves as well as the Truitjieskraal rock formations, before heading over to the highest vineyards in South Africa at Cederberg Wines, where we will sample some of their award winning wines. The trip back to Kromrivier is a short one, where we will get together in their modern restaurant for dinner.
Day 3 is the special one, where we will drive to Matjiesrivier, then turn north towards Eselbank (a remote and isolated community) and descend to Wupperthal via the Eselbank (Kerskop) Pass with its steep gradients and stunning Cederberg landscapes. After a break in the mission village, we will drive two big gravel passes, Kouberg and Hoek se Berg passes, before connecting with the R364, which will take us to Clanwilliam via the Pakhuis Pass on tar.
The return leg to Kromrivier will follow a beautiful route following the northern banks of the Clanwilliam Dam, then over Nieuwoudts Pass, Algeria, Uitkyk Pass back to Kromrivier.
Day 4: An easy day driving a Grade 2 4x4 route on a private farm, followed by wine tasting at Kromrivier Winery, dinner and a quiet night's sleep in style and comfort.
Day 5: We head home after breakfast - Destressed, chilled and ready to tackle the world.
MONTAGU PASS IS COMING BACK!
It's official. The various stakeholders (including the National Heritage Council) have reached a final agreement as to how, when and by how much budget the old pass will need to get it back into a driveable condition.
R80m has been approved and work is estimated to commence by October 2025. This is the best news we've heard in 2025.
Montagu Pass / Photo: MPSA Drone Worx
Several new drainage culverts will be built into the existing parapet walls. Engineers isolated inadequate drainage as the main cause of recent damage to the pass. In addition all the sections of parapet walling that have become dislodged and weathered, will be expertly rebuilt to original standards. The road itself will receive a proper base of crushed stone, overtopped with a compacted fresh gravel surface. The pass will not be tarred, which is good news.
The project should be completed by August 2026.
To say we are mightily chuffed about this news, is an understatement.
Well done Western Cape Government!
And this week seems to have a proliferation of good news. The much loved (and genuinely sorely missed) Outeniqua Choo Choo is showing signs of a possible revival. Tenders have gone out for repairs to the railway line between George and Knysna. This project will be far more complex than the Montagu Pass repair, as some of the bridges (and especially the Kaaiman's Rail bridge) would have to be completely replaced.
A major Garden Route tourist attraction / Photo: Archives
The scenic railway line, like the Montagu Pass, are amongst the Garden Route's finest attractions.
We'll keep you posted as we get intel.
KATBERG TOUR V2 (Overview)
Our 2nd Katberg Tour was substantially different to the first. We made some major changes to the routes in order to offer more "chill time".
The weather produced three fine blue-sky days, followed by two days of rain and the final day a partly cloudy day, to dry things up.
Thirsty Kirsty, after getting her standard pressure washing post-tour clean up, produced enough mud on my driveway to start a fair sized vegetable garden. Considering the amount of cow dung in the mix, such veggies would no doubt grow rather well.
Majestic and green Katberg / Photo: Trygve Roberts/MPSA
The tour produced its fair share of drama, when the same guest slipped and fell twice on the same day, breaking his ankle on the second fall and requiring medical evacuation and rescue, but we'll get into those details in the next episode.
Our accommdation consisted of two days at the Arminel Hotel, followed by three days at the Katberg Hotel and a final night at the Duke of Bedford Inn.
On the final day our plans were thwarted by Mother Nature, when we reached the landslide on the Katberg Pass, which we passed comfortably a year ago (at night nogal!). Another half metre of roadway has disappeared down the slope and it is now too dangerous to get a vehicle over that spot. Water has eroded the soil to the point where it is likely that the entire road will slip away.
That required us to turn the convoy around (a slow and careful operation) and return to Balfour and find a different route to Bedford. We will be making an appeal to the EC Government to repair the road, but don't hold your breath. Regardless of whether the pass is repaired or not, our Katberg Tour will remain as an annual fixture.
We will be producing a detailed report on this tour in the next newsletter.
HOGSBACK - A timeless village with some big problems.
The article below is copied from our Facebook page. The article attracted a lot of comment (far too much to repeat here), but if you're interested in learning more, why not hop over to our Facebook page and read the many accounts of tourists being bullied and harassed by Rance Timbers. We will be submitting this to Carte Blanche for possible further investigation. A group of locals from Hogsback using the acronym HUG have appealed to the relevant minister to intervene. The matter is scheduled for arbitration, but as usual everything takes time to reach finality. This story has developed over a number of years, leaving many unhappy residents in the village, where gun toting security guards intimidate residents and visitors by their presence.
At the time of writing this newsletter, the article below has been read by 234,000+ people in the space of 3 days, an indication of how endemic and serious the problem is and how many people feel srongly about it.
MPSA Convoy enjoying a lunch break - or trying to until local security asked us to move on. / Photo: MPSA
During the first day of our Katberg Tour, we started in Hogsback and drove the Wolf River Pass (a public road) down to the Sindile Dam returning via a loop road eventually rejoining the Wolf River Pass, where we stopped just off the main road to enjoy our lunch along one of the side tracks. We were about 40m from the main road.
Before long, a security guard in a bakkie stopped and told us we were trespassing. He had been watching us for quite some time as we drove up the pass. We explained there were no signs indicating the track as private property but we would none the less move on in a few minutes. The security guard left but contacted his superior via radio at Hogsback Forestry (Rance Timbers).
Suitably attired in company kit and driving a Land Cruiser LDV, he intercepted our convoy from the front. He quickly realised we were just a harmless group of tourists wanting to enjoy the area and toned his rhetoric down with each minute that passed.
He explained about the fires of August 2024 and also about a female hiker that had wandered off the trail and a huge bluegum tree that was being felled landed on her, killing her. The company were being sued for R6m in an ongoing legal battle. We have not been able verify that story as yet.
To cut a long story short and having spoken to other tourism people around the village it seems all is not well up there in the mountains. Rance Timbers (a private company whose business is growing trees) appear to be fully against tourism. They are not maintaining footpaths to the waterfalls or hiking trails and are actively discouraging tourism in the area (as was evidenced by our encounter with them, which bordered on harassment.)
I think if we were one or two vehicles, it would have been more aggressive. After a few minutes of logic and reasoning, I managed to connect with him regarding the importance of tourism and the need for forestry and tourism to hold hands for the common good of the area and its citizens.
After initially refusing us permission to visit the Robinson Falls, he eased off a bit and said we could go and visit the falls without a permit, which we duly did.
I mentioned to him that it was unreasonable to expect visitors to comply if there were no notices or signs erected. He agreed. On parting, he had lost the initial confrontational attitude and suggested we send an email to his boss, which we are busy compiling. All over SA forestry and tourism work hand in hand, so why not at Hogsback, where forestry and tourism are the two biggest employers? This attitude is unhealthy. Come on Rance Timbers, you guys can do a lot better than this.
www.Facebook.com/MountainPassesSouthAfrica/
The Dusty Dashboard - Episode 4
We crossed the Khwai River via a rickety wooden bridge and of course the WW2 movie ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ sprung to mind – albeit in a different jungle and continent. We arrived at Chobe’s Mababe gate and got relieved of another 3840 Pula’s (R 5000) for the various fees for 6 adults and 2 kids for 6 nights camping in a GOBA camp site with zero facilities, which I have labelled a “kakgraffie campsite” Ironically, this was the only camp-site where we enjoyed peaceful sleep with only distant howls of hyenas and a solitary elephant that crashed through the trees one night. It did have a lot of flies though – of the Australian numerical value, which reaches its highest volume at the warmest part of the day. I figured out a neat way to keep them off my face. I sprayed my hat with Doom. It worked!
Then there’s the sand. 50 shades of brown. From the fine talcum powder type dust, that hangs in the air for 20 minutes, to the coarse brown Kalahari sand. It’s in your toes, under your fingernails, in your nose and sinuses. By day 3 my nose was bleeding and fortunately regular sprays of Salex and some Bactroban Nasal ointment, kept things on a more or less even keel. Eventually, you figure out that wearing boots and socks is much better than “plakkies”, but all of us ended up with foot-sores from overheated feet. These are the little things that one should prepare for on a trip to the shallow north.
We had the undeniable privilege of joining a local tour guide, “Spokes” of Classified Safaris, for our time in Savuti. He drove us around in his own Land Cruiser game viewer, which meant more photos and video could be taken and Spokes somehow always knew where the action was. And action there was at one of the international tented camps, where South African’s are seldom seen due to the sheer cost of Euro and US Dollar billing. This is stylish camping with each tent having its own flush toilet and meals are served by dedicated staff, in style under a canopy with hurricane lamps and attractively set tables. I was happy to be a South African as four lions casually toured the fancy campsite.
At 0300 one morning a group of 4 lions decided to check things out in the Presidents Camp. The first young male lion reached tentatively into a tent and pulled the sleeping bag off one of the local helpers, who high tailed it out the back of the tent (probably leaving some brown road markings behind) and jumped into his truck, where he quickly raised the alarm. In the pitch darkness, total chaos reigned in the camp, with terrified guests being hustled into game vehicles one by one. The lions didn’t leave and remained in the camp till 0730, which was about when we arrived on the scene, together with every other game viewing vehicle, both tourist and private in a 20 km radius.
“Like breakdown trucks to the scene of an accident” was the perfect description that sprang to mind. Our guide got us to within 3 metres of a very large male lion and I felt strangely envious that I wasn’t sitting in the cab like he was, but exposed on a completely open bakkie. It would have taken just 2 seconds for the big kitty-cat to have whipped me off there like a rag doll. It actually affected my ability to take photographs, fearing the click-click of the camera shutter might piss the kitty off.
The male then urinated on every tree around the luxury camp, meticulously marking the camp as his own territory. We speculated on the mental state of the guests and later heard that they had all insisted being moved to a lodge and refused to return to camp. It’s a story I would like to have called “Close Encounters of the Turd Kind”
BEN 10 ECO CHALLENGE (DAY 5)
A big day ahead of us with the most challenge passes to tick off in a single day. Lundean's Nek, Dangershoek, Volunteershoek and Carlisleshoekspruit. We always start a bit earlier on this day and had the convoy rolling out of the Mountain Shadows Hotel at 0800 blunt.
It would be a full day of gravel driving as we took the R393 north over the Fetcani Pass towards Wartrail and on to Lundean's Nek Pass, which was in a reasonable condition. The weather was once again perfection as we cruised down towards the Telle River and from there to Dangershoek. We had one youngster (teenage boy) on this trip, who requested a dip in the so called "Mermaid's Pool" which is right next to the road. He described his baptism as "refreshing"
Looking over the Telle River at the Maluti Mountains in Lesotho / Photo: MPSA
By lunchtime we were back at the Wartrail Sports Club (which has a history dating back to the late 1800's) where we enjoyed our lunch break on the level parking area. Apparently Saturday's are the big days, when the local farmers descend on the club to play tennis, braai and have a beer or five. Apparently everyone is welcome to join in.
The drive from Wartrail up the Funnystone Valley is gorgeous and for me personally one of the most underrated drives on this tour. The road meanders along the riverside, switching sides from time to time via narrow bridges and dipping in and out of indegenous riverine forests.
The so called "funny stone" can be seen on the southern side of this road, but you need to know where to look. The stone bears an uncanny resemblance to ET.
Volunteershoek - a pass not be trifled with / Photo: MPSA
Volunteershoek Pass in the ascending mode can be quite a challenge, but thanks to the warm, sunny weather, we drove up without any issues reaching Loch Ness at 14.30 and time for another "wild swim" in the highest altitude fresh water lake in South Africa (2600m), where the water is 'brain freeze' refreshing - even in December.
Carlisleshoekspruit is always an eye opener as we tackled it in the descending mode. Those gut wrenching gradients that have you sliding forward on your seat are always able to raise pulses, as we zig zagged our way down the valley.
A beautiful evening awaited our group at Rhodes as we gathered on the lawns in front of the gracious old (1883) hotel for sundowners followed by Sandra's interesting cuisine. The nights in Rhodes are incredibly quiet. Even the crickets go to sleep.
Next week: Naude's Nek, Elandshoogte, Potrivier, Luzi Poort and Pitseng passes.
FEATURED PASS
Hidden away in a cleft of rugged Karoo hills and koppies, lies the Tarka Pass. It's best driven from North to South to avoid getting lost. We filmed this pass about a year ago. It's a fairly long pass and chewed up lots of space on the camera's memory card, which resulted in many hours of editing and processing to reach the final product - a 4 part video series.
In the narration we chat about the Orange Fish Irigation Scheme (OVIS) which is a great spot to visit once you reach the southern end of the pass.
The video sets conform to our latest standards of telemetry overlays and accurate subtitles. (20 mins)
TARKA PASS
Trygve Roberts / Editor
‘Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.’ – Bill Gates
