r384

This tarred, arrow straight road is located on the R384 approximately 18 km north-east of Carnarvon. The road connects Carnarvon with Vosburg, 100 km to the north-east. The pass is nothing more than a single cutting through the hillside and only rises 40 meters over 1,4 km producing a very gentle average gradient of 1:35. The old road which traveresed the actual Kareebospoort is marked on our virtual flyover in green and would have been a much more interesting drive than the modern version. If you didn't know better, you would never guess this to be an official mountain pass.

This 4 km poort lies in the Hantam Karoo approximately 40 km north-east of Carnarvon. It functions primarily to link the local farming community and is accessed from the R384 in the south or the R386 in the north. It only rises and falls 22 meters producing an average gradient of 1:178 (easy enough for a child in a pedal car!) with the steepest part being 1:12. There are no apparent dangers in the poort other than animals on the road. Being a poort with several streams feeding it, this poort will be subject to flooding. It is best avoided in those rare circumstances. Once upon a time, rhino's roamed this poort. The rest is sad history.....We've posted a pic on the video cover as a stark reminder of what once was.

Named after the largest flightless bird in the world, the Volstruispoort (Ostrich Poort) Pass is a minor poort where the road runs between two Karoo "koppies" on the newly tarred R384 between Carnarvon (75km to the SW) and Vosburg (20km to the ENE). It only falls17 vertical meters over 4,5 km to produce a very easy average gradient of 1:264. The maximum gradient of 1:24 is reached between the two peaks.