Cookhouse

  • Daggaboers Nek is a long tarred pass, located south of Cradock on the N10. The upgraded road is in an excellent condition, and features a double lane on the ascents of both the southern and northern approaches. Gradients are gentle and all of the corners have a wide radius, allowing motorists to easily maintain the designated speed limit of 100 kph. The pass offers beautiful views over the undulating Karoo landscape, particularly on the northern side once the summit has been crested. The pass has a history dating back to the 19th century.

  • This high altitude pass is a little difficult to find, but offers rich rewards to the traveller seeking out the more remote passes. It lies to the east of a deep valley between Cookhouse and Tarkastad and connects a range of farms from the Bedford side with the R344. The pass has a significant altitude gain of 289m over a distance of 4.9 km producing an average gradient of 1:17 with the steeper sections measuring in at 1:14

    This is one of those remote farm roads, less travelled, where the more adventurous traveller will be rewarded with wonderful scenery and quiet roads where you are unlikely to see another vehicle over the entire route. The road is generally maintained to a good standard and can be driven in any vehicle.

  • East Poort is an easy 9 km traverse along the southern side of the Great Fish River just to the east of Cookhouse on the tarred N10 route to Cradock. The poort is suitable for all traffic and presents no obvious dangers. The road is in excellent condition with smoothly banked corners and easy gradients, with some impressive side cuttings for those interested in road engineering, counterpointed with lovely river and mountain views. Cookhouse has an interesting history with its most famous event being the Slagtersnek Rebellion. In modern times, the area is being widely utlitised to generate electricity via extensive wind farms. 

  • Olifantskop is a beautiful tarred pass located on the N10, a major arterial national road which bisects the country from the Namibian border in the north to Port Elizabeth in the south. Surprisingly, it is one of only three passes which reference elephants in their title, the other two being Olifantspoort near Queenstown and Olifantsnek near Rustenburg. Although the road is in a good condition, it is considered to be one of the most dangerous passes in South Africa for a number of reasons, including severe weather conditions, rockfalls, wild animals, multiple blind corners, steep gradients, and last but not least, the large number of heavy commercial vehicles which ply this route.

  • The Slagtersnek (or Butcher's Neck) is an easy gravel road that descends very gently from a natural neck between the two prominant mountains north-east of Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape. The road first crosses the Great Fish River near the start, then approximates the river's course along it's western bank at a higher contour, in a south westerly direction, where it terminates after 3 km at the crossing of a small stream. The pass is insignificant in terms of statistics, but it has a major historical connection - the Slagtersnek Rebellion, which was the major instigator of the Great Trek.