South Africa

The spectacular Abel Erasmus Pass, named after a very prominent citizen of the area, was officially opened on the 8th of May 1959, and navigates the Manoutsa section of the Limpopo Drakensberg. It is regarded as an engineering triumph, with a sequence of bends and twists that can only give rise to admiration for the gold rush pioneers of the late 19th century that carved this route through the mountains with their wagons. The pass has 62 bends, corners and curves of which 12 exceed an arc of 90 degrees.

The pass also includes a 133 metre-long tunnel, named after J.G. (Hans) Strydom, who served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1954 to 1958. This huge pass is over 24 km long and has an altitude variance of 737 metres; the road surface is in a good condition, but the pass is sometimes plagued by heavy traffic. It can be very difficult to pass slow-moving trucks – please exercise a degree of tolerance and patience, and give yourself plenty of time to traverse this route.

The Akkedisberg Pass translates from Afrikaans into Lizard Mountain Pass. It's an easy drive along this tarred coastal pass on the R326 links the small farming town of Riviersonderend with the quaint coastal hamlet of Stanford and the coastal road to Hermanus. The original gravel road dates back to 1776 and is amongst the very oldest passes in South Africa.

The pass had mild gradients and only 13 bends, corners and curves, none of which are particularly sharp or dangerous. It's a fairly long pass at 12,5 km and produces a gentle average gradient of only 1:86 with the steepest sections getting up to 1:18. The views are lovely with the tall mountains keeping watch over the green valley on the right. There is at least one excellent wine estate that leads off the pass.

 

All Saints Neck is located on the outskirts of Engcobo (also sometimes spelled as Ngcobo), a small town in the Eastern Cape between Queenstown and Mthatha on the R61. The pass is named after the All Saints mission station, which was founded in 1860 and which is located to the north of the pass, about 8 km from the town. The road has been refurbished and upgraded and is in an excellent condition, but as always in the Eastern Cape, care must be exercised when driving this pass due to the abundance of traffic, pedestrians and animals in the roadway.

On a minor gravel road between Ceres and Sutherland, this pass caused our team many hours of frustrating research, due to the fact that it appears in the incorrect place on most maps - including some very official ones! When we went to film this pass, we found nothing even vaguely resembling a poort or a pass at the designated place. We finally tracked it down on the 1:50,000 Government maps by accident, whilst scouring for another pass in the area. So finally, we have the Amandelnek Pass pinned down and properly mapped. 

We filmed this insignificant little pass during September, 2018.  The altitude gain is minor, as are the bends and distance. There is one farm gate to open and close right at the summit, but if you enjoy going to remote places then at least the scenery here will be appealing in this big and spacious landscape. Every pass has its own story to tell and this one too, leaves one with a sense of peace, with only the sound of birdsong and insects to keep you company once you switch your vehicle's engine off.

The Northern Cape cartographers were a diligent bunch, naming every climb through every neck, no matter how small, with an official name. This pass is a perfect example.

This is one of the great historical gravel passes which winds its way through the Outeniqua Mountains north of Mossel Bay. It has subsequently been replaced by a significantly more convenient, tarred pass (Robinson Pass). Attaquaskloof Pass is now frequented mostly by die-hard 4x4 enthusiasts and a few local farmers.

However, the 22,3 km of gravel road is definitely worth each and every meter of its history-rich length! A permit is required to drive this route and there are locked gates. Keys are obtained on issue of your permit at the start point, which is the Bonniedale farm. Note - this route can only be driven in one direction (west to east).

30th May, 2017 - News just in from Bonniedale farm: "The Attaquaskloof is part of the old Ox-Wagon Route from Heidelberg to de Vlugd.There is a section of it (20km) that goes through the Attaquaskloof to the R328.Unfortunately Cape Nature has now closed their section of the road.You can still do part of the Trail on Bonniedale. (As well as other 4x4 Trails on Bonniedale), but you are not able to go all the way through.You can however use the alternate route (public road), from Bonniedale to the R328, and meet up again with the Ox-Wagon Route from there again."

The Bain's Kloof Pass (R301) provided a more direct route from the town of Wellington to the more northern towns of Ceres and Worcester, in the Western Cape. It was a much loved route by the wagoneers who appreciated the gentle gradients that the oxwagons could manage. It remained the main road to the north for almost a hundred years, before the Du Toits Kloof Pass was constructed from 1940 till 1946.

It is 26,8 km in length from the bridge over the Breede River to the outskirts of Wellington. Built circa 1849 by Andrew Geddes Bain, this pass was a tough nut to crack, working with convicts and raw, rough materials and methods. As always seemed to be the case with Bain, he oversaw a marvellous job of the pass which, having stood the test of time, is now a national monument.

The more dramatic, northern section of the pass roughly follows the course of the Witte River, a raging torrent during the wet winter season. There are many points of interest along the pass including the two toll points (Eerste & Tweede Tol), Dacre's Pulpit, Bell Rocks, Pilkington bridge, Borcherd's bridge, Gawie se Water, Bain's Ruins and Bain's Tunnel.

Editors Note: This page is currently under reconstruction. The new four part video series will be uploaded between Oct 29th and Nov 7th, 2022.

This major 10 km long tarred pass lies on the R58 between Elliot and Barkly East in the high mountains of the Eastern Cape at an altitude of 2018m at the summit. The pass displays an altitude variance of 572m which converts into an average gradient of 1:17 which is moderately steep. This pass is subject to winter snow closures. Look out for the country style hotel (Mountain Shadows) at the top of the pass where you can catch up with some of the local history and experience true country style hospitality.

At the time of filming in 2024, the road surface was taking a little strain and signs of patchwork were evident along many parts of the pass. Despite the tarred surface, this pass can be lethal if speed limits and other warning signs are not heeded. Due its altitude it's subject to snowfalls and black ice on the road surface, which multiplie sthe danger factor enormously.

Do not underestimate this pass under any circumstances.

The Bastervoetpad Pass is one of the most challenging true mountain passes in South Africa and it's rated high amongst the Top 8 high altitude passes of the Eastern Cape.  Officially named the Dr. Lapa Munnik Pass, (although no-one uses this name), this rough gravel pass is located between the summit of the Barkly Pass and Ugie and traverses a southern arm of the Drakensberg along the east-west axis. The rugged mountains and deep, green valleys of the southern Drakensberg are strongly reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands, with icy winters and mild summers. This is the only pass in South Africa named after a minister of Public Health. The route was first discovered in 1862 by Adam Kok lll, when he led an armed group down the footpath as a possible route for his historic trek, but found the locals too hostile. He subsequently led the Griquas in their historic trek from Phillipolis in the Free State to their new home, called of course - Kokstad, over another route further to the east, named Ongeluksnek.

The pass boasts a summit height of 2240m, a length of 20 km and it loses 830m of altitude down the Drakensberg escarpment on the eastern side. Add to those rather impressive statistics, this pass can be treacherous in bad weather and is subject to electrical storms, violent winds, heavy rain, hail and snow. It also offers some of the finest scenery in South Africa, when the weather is good. If you intend driving this pass, watch all six videos first and then make your decision.

Please note that you need a 4x4 vehicle with low range & high ground clearance to complete this pass.

 

This short, easy pass is located close to the junction of the N1 and the R70, near Winburg in the Free State. The official route designation is the R70. This tarred road was in poor condition at the time of filming in February, 2016. It presents moderate gradients and only four very gentle curves. It lies to the east of the large irrigation dam - the Erfenis Dam, which is a popular weekend destination for locals offering fresh water angling, camping as well as a nature reserve at its north-western end near the dam wall.

 

A gravel pass in KZN between Harrismith and Bergville - in the vicinity of the Sterkfontein Dam. The pass starts at 1349m ASL and summits at 1751m. It is 5,6 km long producing an ascent gradient of 1/14 making it very steep. Be prepared to crawl along this road at less than 10 kph and allow plenty of time. Probably between 60 and 90 minutes to cover the 5 km. It is only suitable for 4x4 vehicles with good ground clearance and low range! Remember to drop your tyre pressures to around 1,0 to 1,2 bar to prevent punctures and improve traction. This road is a rough one!

 

The Blinkberg Pass (translated as 'Glittering or Shining Mountain') is a fairly long pass, found on the much revered gravel road (the P1482) through the southern Cederberg. The Grootrivierhoogte Pass and Blinkberg Pass run concurrently for a distance of almost 20km through magnificent and rugged scenery.

The pass has an unusual vertical profile in that it has two false summits located approximately at the 1/3 and 2/3 points. Each of these is marked by a short tarred section to cope with the very steep gradients. At 11,8 km this a long pass and is peppered with corners, but most of these are fairly easy. There are however, some really nasty ones, which can catch unsuspecting drivers by surprise.

The road traverses spectacular Cederberg mountain scenery and follows a narrow kloof for most of its length. Earmark this one if you've never driven it, as it's one of the nicest gravel roads in South Africa.

It is almost impossible to determine the origin of the name of this pass, as Botha is a very popular surname in South Africa; it is in fact the second most common European surname after Jacobs. It has been established, however, that the pass name dates back to at least the 1880s, as there are some references to the pass in the chronicles of the 1st Anglo-Boer War, and this is also approximately when the nearby town of Barberton was founded.

This beautiful pass, which is not particularly well-known, is located on the tarred R38 route between Barberton and Badplaas, and offers up magnificent panoramic vistas over the De Kaap Valley from its many viewpoints. It gains a strapping 547 metres in altitude, and is nearly 12 kilometres long. The road is in an excellent condition, but it can be hazardous when covered by thick mist or rain which is common at certain times of the year.

This gravel pass traverses the Drakensberg and is strictly a 4x4 track, which connects surrounding farms to the east of Harrismith in the Free State with farms in the KZN Highlands near Dundee and Newcastle. The route traverses private land and requires the consent of the land owners. Together with Rogers Pass and Keays Pass the three passes ascend and descend the Drakensberg over some tough tracks making for a challenging 4x4 circuit. Not much information is known about Brandons pass and very few people have driven it.

 

Originally known as the Koo Pass (serving the fruit-growing region known as the Koo Valley), it was renamed after a local town councillor, Mr. Burger, who expended a lot of energy to influence the authorities to upgrade the road. 'KOO' products have stocked the cupboards of South African families for over 80 years'! 

The pass was originally plotted byThomas Bain and constructed by the Divisional Council in 1876, when construction stopped due to a lack of funds and was finally completed in 1887 at a cost of 1000 Pounds Sterling.

Despite the modern engineering this pass has a combination of dangers - from long momentum gathering straights, to very sharp corners. Drive this one with a sense of vigilance. 
 

This is a secondary gravel road in the vicinity of some of the famous attractions of the Lowveld, like the Blyde River Canyon (Molatse Canyon), Pilgrim's Rest, Bourkes Luck Potholes - a charming world of a bygone era, loaded with pioneering history and tales of mining hardship.

The pass has a long trekker history and was first built by Paul Kruger's father Casper Kruger, hence the name. The routing of this pass was actually very clever considering the time and evolution of our roads in South Africa and is generally a pleasant route with reasonable gradients, but there are a few sections which do keep very steep, especially on the western side.

Of further significance on this pass is that although the pass is a lengthy 12,2 km it only has 22 bends, corners and curves and all of the sharpest bends, including the single hairpin, occur during the first 2,2 km on the western side. The road follows a similar line to Robbers Pass, but about 20 km further to the north.

Chapman's Peak Drive dates back to the early 1900's and is without question one of Cape Town's Top 10 tourist destinations. Its popularity is due to the incredible scenery on offer, viewed from a road which has been literally hewn out of the almost vertical cliff faces on the Cape Peninsula's western side.

The 10 km long pass connects Hout Bay in the north with Noordhoek in the south and was converted into a toll road in 2003 to cover the high costs of maintaining the road to a safe standard. Along its length you will drive through more than 80 bends, corners and curves and see some impressive modern engineering, including massive steel catch nets and two semi-tunnels. Many sections of unstable rock-face have been reinforced with shotcrete.

This pass is loaded with drama and history dating back to 1910 and is best appreciated driven slowly. It must have seemed an impossible task building a road on such an inhospitable and dangerous cliff face, but the road building pioneers did the job!

The more observant viewers will notice that we have not included our standard vertical profile nor simulated fly-past clips in the first video. The reason for this is that Google Earth simply cannot 'read' the road correctly and the results are too distorted to provide an accurate simulation. This is the only pass in South Africa, where this has occurred.

Chunie's Poort is located on the tarred R37 road, about 40 km south of Polokwane (formerly known as Pietersburg). There are various spellings of the name, including Chuene and Tshwene, which translates as “Baboon”, but most sources and the signboards use the spelling as shown above. The pass follows the course of the Tudumo River, which flows southwards out of the Chuniespoort Dam. At the northern end, the river has cut its way through a narrow gorge, and an unusual feature of this pass is that the bridge over which the road is built does not cross the river, but parallels its path through this gorge, directly above the water.

Clarence Drive is a magnificent scenic coastal drive between the windswept hamlet of Rooi-Els and the naval town of Gordons Bay, which nestles in the north-eastern crook of False Bay in the shadow of the Hottentots Hollands mountains. This beautiful, coastal drive stretches between the two towns over 21 km, hugging the wild turquoise Cape coastline all the way. If you like passes with lots of corners, then this one is for you, as it contains 77 bends, curves and corners of which four are in excess of 150 degrees. The road is in a beautiful condition and attracts tourists, locals, bikers and cyclists in their droves. Overtaking is fairly limited and in general one can expect to average well below 60 kph.

  

Cogmanskloof connects the towns of Ashton and Montagu. Its entire 6.5 km stretches through a majestic landscape of towering rock formations and a colourful pastoral patchwork, which delights the eye and invigorates the heart! Renamed after the popular Cape Colonial Secretary, John Montagu, the town's original name of Cogmanskloof is where this pass took its name from.

Technically this is much more of a poort than a pass, as the elevation variances are minor. The road more or less follows the river for the entire length. Montagu and Ashton are at the epicentre of the dried and stone fruit industry in the Western Cape and a visit to the local co-op is a must. Montagu has a wide variety of accommodation options on offer from basic backpacker style camping all the way through to 5 star luxury lodges. There are many restaurants and a few hotels. The town has become popular with the adventure set, attracting groups of mountain bikers, hikers and rock climbers. In the town are two caravan parks and several more on the outskirts and surrounding farms.

This relatively new pass was constructed between 1984 and 1988 at the then staggering cost of R125,000,000. Leading up to the Huguenot Tunnel from its western side, is the awe-inspiringly beautiful, high-altitude Hugosrivier Viaduct (the first of its kind to be built in South Africa!) The bridge is simultaneously curved, rising and cambered - constructed by the incremental method.  It soars high above the farm-patchworked Hugosrivier Valley. The 4 km-long tunnel reduced the distance of the old pass by 11 km.

The scenery along the pass is amongst the best in the Western Cape and it's arguably the finest pass mountain pass along the entire N1. During the winter rainfall season there are several waterfalls to be seen, some of them falling from such great heights that they disintegrate into mist before reaching the bottom. For most of the eastern section of the pass, the road follows the course of the Molenaars River, making it more of a poort than a pass, but once the Huguenot Tunnel is reached, the road burrows straight through the mountain and then descends rapidly towards the Paarl Valley.

Despite the fabulous scenery, the road carries heavy traffic and trucking accidents are a regular occurence. Most accidents occur on either side of the tunnel, rather than inside it. Drivers need to remain very alert on the pass and note that the maximum speed limit is 100 kph and at other times as low as 60 kph. Speed limits inside the tunnel may vary based on current traffic conditions. At the time of writing (2022) there is a new project to open up the second tunnel to traffic, which will allow double lanes of traffic in each of the dedicated directional tunnels. This new project should take about 3 years to complete.