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 Contents I Best 4x4

➲ Introduction 4
01I Cederberg & Biedouw Valley
➲ Route Map p8 & Road Atlas section p154 6
02I Gannaga & Ouberg Passes, Tankwa Karoo NP
➲ Route Map p18 & Road Atlas section p154 16
03I The Swartberg, Die Hel & Meiringspoort Passes
➲ Route Map p30 & Road Atlas section p155 28
04I Baviaanskloof
➲ Route Map p44 & Road Atlas section p155 42
05I Karoo – Camdeboo NP & Mountain Zebra NP
➲ Route Map p54 & Road Atlas section p155 52
06I Lesotho – Drakensberg
➲ Route Map p66 & Road Atlas section p156 64
07I iSimangaliso Wetland Park & Hluhluwe-iMfolozi NP
➲ Route Map p86 & Road Atlas section p156 84
08I Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
➲ Route Map p102 & Road Atlas section p154 100
09I Northern Namibia
➲ Route Map p116 & Road Atlas section p150 114
10I Southern Namibia
➲ Route Map p138 & Road Atlas section p150 136
➲ Road Atlas section 150
➲ Packing List & Tourist Resources 157
 03I The Swartberg, Die Hel & Meiringspoort Passes

A Quintet of Mountain G

swartberg pass

What’s so special
about this route?
■ My heart lies in the

Swartberg Pass. The cliffs are
massive; ancient crumpling and
compressing of the rock strata
stare you in the face; and the
energy is pulsating. The scale of
Die Hel’s rock walls, the vertical
drops, the folded switchbacks,
the sheer thrill of it all make
it a must-do.

the gamkas river valley, known as die hel

more information : Plan Your Trip info: at end of chapter, page 41, Tourist Resources: pages 158–160
28 l
Prince Alfred’s Pass, Swartberg Pass, Die Hel/Gamkaskloof, Prince Albert, Meiringspoort, Montagu Pass

Gateways
Rou
549nd trip
start k
ing/e m
Kyns dingn
na

maps : This route’s map: pages 30–31, also in Road Atlas Section: page 155
29
 03I The Swartberg, Die Hel & Meiringspoort Passes
Getting there (Knysna):
■ From Johannesburg: N1 south to Beaufort
West; N12 to George; N2 to Knysna
■ From Durban and Port Elizabeth:
N2 south to Knysna
30
trip summary
Features: Prince Alfred’s & Swartberg Passes,
Die Hel/Gamkaskloof, Prince Albert, Meiringspoort,
Montagu Pass
Trip duration: 2–3 days
Time of year: early August (spring)
Round trip: starting/ending Knysna, 549km
Fuel consumption: 8.6 litres/100km over very
difficult terrain
Road conditions:
■ The pass at Gamkaskloof is a precipitous single-
file track, rutted and stony; only 4x4 terrain.
■ Use the advantage of height along the pass to
check whether there is an oncoming vehicle, as
you will need to search for a spot to pull over as
best you can to allow it to pass.
■ 4x4s will have no problem with the other passes
– they can deteriorate considerably after rain.
KNYSNA KNYSNA CBD

31
 03I The Swartberg, Die Hel & Meiringspoort Passes
Our 4x4
travel kit
■ Garmin GPS
(Nuevi 610 or Quest)
■ Two-way radios for
inter-vehicle communication
■ 1 Waeco 30-litre fridge;
1 Waeco 40-litre fridge-freezer
■ 2 Colman hard-shell cool boxes
(for use during the day)
■ Torch (Maglite or similar)
■ First-aid kit
■ Fire extinguisher
■ Tyre pump and gauge
■ Puncture repair kit
■ Tow rope or strap
■ Jumper cables
■ Mini toolbox
(pliers, screwdrivers, spanners,
spare fuses, etc.)
Day 1
Knysna to Prince Albert (321km)
Prince Alfred’s Pass
August was still young, spring was almost
ready to burst forth from a long, cold, wet
winter. It was a crisp 7ºC as we set off from
Knysna at 8am in our pair of Freelanders. Our
destination: the mighty Swartberg mountains
and the much anticipated tortuous pass into
Die Hel. Keith ahead, Hirsh in hot pursuit,
the two set the holiday mood as they tested
the two-way radios with banter rippling fast
as quicksilver. Far too witty for so early in the
morning, I thought to myself…
✿ N2 intersection/left onto R339
to Uniondale
Turning onto a gravel road, we threaded our
way up and up through the thickly wooded
Diepwalle state forest with its banks of hardy
giant ferns and small-stemmed indigenous
trees jostling for the open sky. When we
encountered some heaps of elephant
dung, we wondered whether someone was
32
playing a trick on us – remnants of the
humorous tradition of the Knysna
Forest Marathon perhaps?
(Granted, recent DNA testing on
dung has indicated there are five
forest elephants secretly wandering about
in the area.) We emerged at Buffelshoek,
the road hugging the edge of the mountain
as fynbos fell away into the Keurboom River
valley and signposts carried pretty names
like Valley of Ferns. We travelled past
ordered, serried rows of stems and trunks,
the horizon marked by the serrated outline
of fir plantations while the opposite skyline
was defined by banks of misty mountains,
dipping and swooping in uneven layers.
The valley dropped dramatically, marked by
wooded interlocking spurs, and bright aloes
made an appearance. So did baboons. As
we crossed Buffelshoek state forest, we
looked over the enchanted landscape of
Outeniqua Trout Lodge, where a chain of
dams reflected the sky and the Keurboom
River divided and spread, leaving a trace
of white pebbled banks. Ahead stretched a
row of mountains from the Outeniqua range,
looking like green fuzzy fingers.
…we didn’t stop to further investigate the
swan’s what’s-it, Die Hel was calling…
As the Landies progressed, the
Outeniqua mountains rose higher and
higher around us. We looked onto sheared
rock faces with jagged edges, flanked by
cracked rock pillars and boulders balancing
precariously on narrow pedestals. In this
shattered environment, mainly hardy
succulents survive with tiny specimens
peeking from the crevices and aloes
standing sentinel, sometimes on tall scruffy
pedestals, at other times darkly silhouetted
high on the distant skyline. Next the well-
watered rocky slopes produced a string of
long, thin waterfalls with a series of narrow
gauge bridges crossing mountain streams.
Just before the Vlier Bend picnic spot, we
stopped at a pretty spreading waterfall that
splashed into a milky green pool. Much to
our disgust, the surrounding rocks were
defaced with graffiti, proud individuals
claiming they’ve been here, got the T-shirt…
Clearly nature’s perfection is not allowed to
pass unscathed.
A white-paint-brushed sky above our
heads, we headed along the Prince Alfred’s
Pass on a winding road that cut into the
edge of the mountain, giving us eagle-eyrie
views into the valley. Purple Ericas looking
like heather and day-glo pink Vygie bushes
on the mountain slopes bravely withstood a
wild cold wind that buffeted the 4x4s and
whipped up dust storms ahead. Around us,
bald rocky tops emerged from the fuzzy green
knuckles. Suddenly we encountered neatly
striated slopes cultivated with fruit trees and
contendedly grazing woolly sheep. The valley
had opened up to flat open farmland.
✿ Right onto R62. Left onto R339
to Uniondale
Heading now into the Kammanassieberge,
the dramatic rocky landscape of sawn-off
cracked faces and shattered rock pin-
nacles continued, with vegetation clawing
on wherever its roots could take hold
and succulents and heather-like fynbos
growing all over the bouldered slopes. This
transformed into scrub-covered rolling hills
as we approached Uniondale.
✿ Near Uniondale, right onto N9
(Willowmore)
Cruising through Uniondale, the only
feature of note is the attractive old police
station with its Victorian detailing – and
a signboard advertising the Swanze Gat
(‘swan’s bum’ in the old Dutch of the early
settlers!) guesthouse. We didn’t stop to
further investigate the swan’s what’s-it, Die
Hel was calling, so we continued on towards
De Rust.
 swartberg pass from oudtshoorn side

✿ Left on R339/R341 (De Rust). River with silvery-grey Agaves (a plant from
About 5km, left again off R339 which tequila is made) and low succulent Plantlife
(shortcut to join R341) vegetation to either side of the road. On our ■ Bitter aloe (Aloe ferox – below)
By now we knew we were in the Little left, horizontal sedimentary rock bands tilted ■ Pig’s ears (Cotyledon orbiculata)
Karoo as ostriches populated the hardy skyward and ahead of us, the Swartberg ■ Doringvy (pink vygie)
fynbos scrub, peering inquisitively at us as peaks were still dusted with the last of (Eberlanzia ferox)
we drove by. Untidy aloes marched into the the winter snow. It was ■ Gum-leaved
distance and the blades of a lone windmill intensely gratifying to conebush
cranked in the perfect silence. realise that we were (Leucadendron
the only two vehicles eucalyptifolium)
on the road. Then we ■ Golden
Swartberg Pass were in an amphitheatre Mimetes/Golden
created by rings of the Pagoda (Mimetes
✿ Turn left onto R341 (De Rust). Kammanassie foothills chrysanthus)
Left at Hoekplaas ever rising to the giant ■ Pink/white
Driving now on gravel, a rim of mountains Swartberg and covered everlasting
completely encircled us to every horizon. in a mantle of low round- (Phaenocoma
Isolated clumps of thorny cactus were topped green bushes. prolifera)
upstaged by glowing ember-red Bitter One green-moulded hill had been scarred ■ Resin bush/Geelmagriet
aloes (Aloe ferox) emerging from their by an angry gash of exposed rock where the (Euryops abrotanifolius)
base of fleshy spiky leaves; yet other aloes face sheared eons ago. It now smouldered ■ Sand olive (Dodonaea angustifolia)
presented a narrow clean pedestal and in shades of burgundy, mustard and cream ■ Wild olive (Olea europaea)
pretty rose-tinged succulent leaves. For a and vegetated slopes rose to meet its base, ■ Spekboom (Portulacaria afra)
while we followed the course of the Olifants like a mini-escarpment.
33
 03I The Swartberg, Die Hel & Meiringspoort Passes

Driving ‘at’ the mountains, we came

upon beautiful Doornkloof, set in a wide
valley among the rolling hills and flanked
by a mirror-like dam and emerald fields.
This was true sheep and wheat territory as
all around red rock pinnacles and eroded
boulders thrust out of the Karoo hills.

✿ Left onto N12 (Oudtshoorn).

Turn right at Oudemuragie.
Passing briefly through De Rust we were
struck by its characterful coffee shops,
prettily painted country-style stores and
guesthouses. Looking like they were
particularly browse-worthy, we decided to
return for lunch the next day – Die Hel still
called. We were heading into the Swartberg
foothills across a surprisingly built-up broad
valley – very rural and pretty with its young
wheatfields in varying shades of green, a
sea of ostrich necks in the tall grass and
snow glittering in the sun on the high
mountain peaks. I loved the abandoned old
gabled houses filled to the eaves with straw
bales – an imaginative storage facility!
At other times we were hemmed in by
walls of striated rock strata, often covered in
a red or green stubble from the lichens, and
which had been bent, twisted or folded so
many millions of years ago when the earth’s
crust buckled.
After a series of gum plantations, our
Freelanders left civilisation behind and
suddenly we were in the midst of soaring
scrub-covered hills. Past the enormous
Raubenheimer dam, we hit tar road again
and the mountain walls encroached closer
and closer to the road.
folded rock strata, swartberg

In the Know … Mountain Geology

The geological structure of both the Swartberg and Meiringspoort passes falls into the Cape Supergroup. This in turn consists
of three lesser groupings that are a feature of the Swartberg range: the Witteberg, Bokkeveld and Table Mountain groups.
The geology dates back to the Palaeozoic era, spanning a time 360 to 510 million years ago. The soaring cliffs of both passes
are mainly hard quartzitic Table Mountain sandstones with some visible bands of Bokkeveld shales (both are fine-grained,
layered sedimentary rock). The dramatic folding of the sedimentary bands was caused by powerful forces beneath the earth’s
crust which applied pressure along the east–west plane, crumpling layers until they ruptured so that giant sections of rock
slid over the top of one another, creating massive fractures. For this reason, the Cape Fold Belt is also referred to as the
Cape Thrust Belt.

34
✿ Right onto R328 (Cango Caves)
Our mountain realm was most evident to us
now as, back on gravel again, we passed
through road cuttings hewn out of walls of
solid rock. As we approached the Swartberg
Pass, one of Thomas Bain’s masterpieces
built from 1883–86, a tumult of humps and
bumps under a jade-green shroud rose all
around and forests of aloes bristled on the
foothills. We continuously climbed around
hairpin curves with names like ‘Skelmdraai
Bend’ and were treated with stupendous
views down into the massive broad valley of
interlocking spurs, looking as if they were
covered in green felt, while the stressed and
fractured rock of vertically heaved strata
hung above us.
As we rose higher, the road slithered and
curved steeply downward behind us like a
white scar etched into the mountain slope.
Low, neatly packed, retaining stone walls
edging the most precipitous sections of the
burnt proteas at top of swartberg pass
…our vehicles bounced slowly along a single-
file road that clung to the mountain edge with a
precipitous drop-off disappearing below us…
route looked like the Great Wall of China
curving into the distance.
At the succinctly named ‘Die Top’, the
cold blasting wind pinned my door closed,
preventing me from getting out to check
the height (1563m from sea level). We had
climbed 900m in around 12 kilometres –
which explained why cars negotiating the
curves below us resembled Tonka toys. A
malachite sunbird flashed its gorgeous jewel
colours among mop-haired aloes that stood
to attention like armless toy soldiers.
Die Hel / Gamkaskloof
✿ Left turn off top of Swartberg
Pass
Clearly signposted: ‘Gamkaskloof, “Die Hel”
/ “The Hell”, 50km = 2 hours’, we were duly
warned. It hardly needs stating here that
the Gamkaskloof Pass is navigable by 4x4s
only. It was 12h45 as the two Freelanders
negotiated the pitted, stony mountaintop,
which had recently experienced a fire,
leaving a rocky lunar landscape of charred
skeletal stems and stripped protea heads
– which in fact had a certain sculptural
beauty. Feeling cautious after encountering
a sign saying: ‘Dangerous road for 48km!’
our vehicles bounced slowly along a narrow,
generally single-file road that clung to the
mountain edge with a precipitous drop-off
disappearing below us on the opposite edge.
Loosely packed stone slopes supporting the
roadside were hardly reassuring! The road
climbed to 1450m before easing downward.
The early spring fynbos was holding its own
– restios, grey and salmon-pink proteas,
spiky yellow-leaved Golden Mimetes, and
white and tiny pink everlastings distracted
us when the views spiralling away got too
road into die hel/gamkaskloof
A Pass into Hell
The Gamkaskloof Pass is named
after the Gamkas River, which
in turn was named by the Khoi
people; gamkas means ‘lion’,
implying that before hunters
wielded their shotguns, lion were
probably quite prolific here and
used to slake their thirst at the
river. This eastern approach via
the Swartberg Pass into the valley
that was later named Die Hel took
foreman Kosie van Zyl over two
years (March 1960 to August 1962)
and R30,000 to build with the
help of a bulldozer and a handful
of labourers. Before this, the kloof
was virtually inaccessible with only
donkeys able to handle the single
steep track, and it’s also likely to
have been devilishly hot in summer.
In 1940 Piet Botha, a stock
inspector who was summoned to
visit the valley, reported back that
his journey had been ‘just like Hell’.
The name stuck. Certainly, in those
early days, only the hardiest of
Afrikaner farmers had the courage
to settle here and by 1991, the last
farming family had left the valley.
Today, only a handful of permanent
inhabitants, mainly involved in
tourism, live there.
35
 03I The Swartberg, Die Hel & Meiringspoort Passes
much for us. There was also a profusion of
buttercup-yellow daisy bushes (Resin bush
or Geelmagriet) on the slopes. And the
wildlife certainly wasn’t deterred by heights
– baboons raised quizzical eyebrows at us
and a trio of woolly rhebok with long narrow
ears and vertical spiky horns stood poised on
the roadside before flashing the underside
of their fluffy white tails and melting into
…the spidery white ribbon of road turns
on itself endlessly with the elasticity of
a circus contortionist…
the fynbos. We also identified a little female
klipspringer in her brown-speckled coat,
perching elegantly on a rock on the tips of
her hooves.
The stupendous scale of the mountain-
scapes as we descended defies description.
Over here, a series of grassed plateaus
clearly have been shifted onto their side,
over there, sheer escarpment-like breaks
indicate where the mountain subsided
36
eons hence, in the distance is a series of
giant interlocking spurs and straight ahead
an entire face of the mountain has slid
earthward and is now marked with massive
channels gouged out by the stone slides.
We encountered a gigantic boulder on
the roadside painted with the words ‘Oom
Koos se Klip’. Had it caused his demise, we
wondered? The tight switchbacks continued
relentlessly as we held our collective breath
in case we’d meet on oncoming vehicle. At
times we could see the spidery white ribbon
of road turning on itself endlessly with the
elasticity of a circus contortionist below us.
It’s definitely worthwhile to keep your eyes
peeled for any other 4x4s as you need to
desperately search for the slightest widening
of the road where you can pull off to the side
and wait for the vehicles to pass.
views back over the swartberg pass
The road was heading into a massive
valley that on one side looked as if uptilted
layer after uptilted layer of the terraced
escarpment had been shoehorned into the
abyss. Tall aloes reminded me of enquiring
meerkats, standing bolt upright as they
surveyed the landscape.
Finally the road bottomed out into the
broad valley but the abundant rains had
nurtured the vegetation into thick, tangled
forest growth that encroached tightly onto
the road to either side. The route became a
blur of greenery – spiny acacias and trees
draped in a muslin-type moss too fine to be
Old Man’s Beard – white pebbled riverbeds
and the ubiquitous rutted and potholed
roads. Specimens of Aloe ferox glowed in
shades of burnt orange to fiery red.
At 2:30pm, one and a half hours later,
we drove into the Gamkaskloof campsite
where Cape Nature Conservation has its
base. We chatted to the staff, looked at the
photographic display on the history of the
valley (see panel on page 33) and settled at
a bench in the shade of the trees to eat the
lunch we’d packed early that morning.
 The thing to do, of course, would have
been to have stayed in one of the simple
converted houses that once belonged to the
original hardy farmer-settlers. Decorated
today according to indigenous traditions,
some sport bright colours with bold graphic
patterns while others have stepped façades
or window and door surrounds painted in
relief. Problem is, this was a long weekend
and accommodation was nowhere to be
had. When we explained this to some of the
hardened 4x4 enthusiasts we bumped into,
…the normal clichés of feeling like a tiny
insignificant blot on the landscape crowded in…
we were met with looks of utter disbelief. To
tackle a pass of this nature just for lunch?!
Pure madness, evidently.
As we slowly wound our way out of the
valley again, we met plenty of 4x4s trundling
in and families settling in for the
evening on the stoeps of their
little painted houses. Next time,
we promised ourselves.
The light had softened and
shadows were lengthening on
the massive walls around us.
Their scale reduced Keith’s
Land Rover, driving ahead,
to the size of a tiny ladybird
scuttling along below. It struck
me that this spaghetti-thin
strand of road weaving skyward
was our only lifeline, and the
normal clichés of feeling like
a tiny insignificant blot on the
landscape crowded in.
✿ Left onto Swartberg
Pass
As if Die Hel weren’t enough
of a visual treat, the remaining
section of the Swartberg Pass
was pretty spectacular. The
exposed sedimentary bands
are folded and compressed
into impossible shapes – here
a zigzagging chevron, there
rolled like a circular bale of hay, another
twisted on itself in a row of pleats. At times
the red rock was threaded through with
distinct white veins of quartz. The route was
dotted with road signs like Blikstasie (Tronk)
and Malva Draai. As we neared Prince
Albert, our vehicles were tightly hemmed in
by giant russet walls that soared skyward,
and when we stopped to gaze at them in
awe, there was a pulsating energy all around
that was quite palpable. Tiny pig’s ear aloes,
succulents and hardy fynbos clawed to
cracks and crevices and birds twittered
above the rushing water of a stream. As we
drove towards the dramatic rock portal that
marks the entrance to the pass from the
Prince Albert side, the rock cliffs became a
vertical rock spines in the swartberg
series of vertical quartzite spines like rows
of bookends rising 700m high. Side on, their
worn faces were covered with lichens and
it was as if they’d been roller-brushed in
pastel greens, sherbert yellows and ochres.
breakfast on the ‘sloot’, dennehof guesthouse
✿ Left onto R407 (Prince Albert)
We emerged from the pass (some 22km
in total) and the shattered rock landscape
morphed into the rolling grassy Oukloof hills,
each of which rose to a pinnacle just like a
collection of Lesotho hats. In Prince Albert
our elegant stop for the night
was Dennehof guesthouse, a
gabled Karoo-style homestead
with a verandah-ed stoep
running its full length. We
loved its whimsical décor –
quirky ceramic art, tasselled
lampshades and door handles,
zebra-skin seats and gauze
fairies hanging from the
curtains once they were drawn.
This little country town has
no shortage of eating places
to try, and we ended up in
the Karoo Kombuis with its
platteland home cooking, old-
time crooner music and lintel
of women’s shoes.
Breakfast was had beneath
shady trees on a wooden
platform that spanned a sloot
(water channel). In the distance,
against a jade mountain
backdrop, sprinklers sprayed
plumes of water across the
wheatfields while a sheepdog
attended to its duty of herding
woolly angora goats. A great
start to a new day.
37
 03I The Swartberg, Die Hel & Meiringspoort Passes

Day 2
Prince Albert to Beyond the Moon
(170km)

Meiringspoort

✿ From Prince Albert, R407 to

Klaarstroom
We headed into the Prince Albert valley
where rolling green hills with exposed
rocky peaks powered skyward. This soon
opened up to a flatter Karoo landscape
of shrub-covered koppies decorated with
spiny ridges piercing their green cover.
Banks of mountains defined the horizon
all around us, encroaching closer and
closer till they surrounded us in a greatly
undulating territory of wheat, vines, sheep
and ostriches.

✿ Right on N12 (Klaarstroom,

Oudtshoorn)
As we entered Meiringspoort (which is a
tarred road), the edge of the Swartberg peaks
ahead looked as if they’d been outlined in
a solid white band of paint which, through
our binoculars, turned out to be snow. The
fractured red rock around us rose higher
and higher till shattered stony cliffs heaved
above the road. The slopes and cracked
ledges were covered in little Karoo bushes
and we could make out mountain proteas,
wild olives and shiny-leaved Spekboom.
The road then followed a river and
we were reminded of the visual nature of
the Afrikaans language (and tickled pink)
by the signs for a series of fords that
obviously served as watering points for the
early settlers’ ox-wagons in days of old.
Names like Wasgatdrif, Wadrif, Uitspandrif,
Witperdedrif and Perskeboomdrif…
At Watervalkloof on the Grootrivier,
visitors can stop at the Cape Nature
Conservation information centre and parking
area on the left to walk to a nearby waterfall.
Two specimens of a black eagle are on
display at the centre, together with samples
of local flora. We decided rather to drive to
a designated picnic site a little further on
the right, with restrooms and stone and
concrete benches scattered under trees. Set
38 meiringspoort
in a very scenic spot along the Grootrivier
called Skelmkloof and hemmed in by rocky
mountains, we had it all to ourselves and
were entertained by a flurry of birds –
familiar chat, Cape bulbul, Cape weaver,
the perky Cape wagtail and both the male
and female Cape rock thrush. Look out for
their orangey chest, which both sexes have,
but where the female has a speckled brown
head, the male’s is a distinctive blue-grey.
meiringspoort picnic spot
Although Meiringspoort’s towering
rocky cliffs were pretty dramatic, after the
Swartberg they felt a little tamer, with less
twisting and crumpling and folding of the
rock strata. We meandered our way out
of the pass, wondering briefly who had
‘spooked’ whom at Spookdrif, and decided
it was time for lunch in the pretty village of
De Rust, tucked into a tiny green valley with
soft rolling hills as a boundary. Along the
roadside, flowering rose-pink bushes turned
out to be sand-olives, carrying masses
of little two- or three-sided lantern-like
…who had ‘spooked’ whom at Spookdrif?…
blooms. In De Rust quaint craft shops with
Victorian architectural detailing and trompe
l’oeil façades were interspersed with beds of
sunshine-yellow and orange spring daisies.
At Village Trading Post, a charming back
garden with chairs and tables set amidst
two mosaic fountains won us over, and we
ate our lunch surrounded by Victorian hats,
cabbage roses and chiffon dresses.
Then it was time to head through the
Kammanassie mountains and Montagu
Pass for our last stop, a magical farm in the
foothills of the Outeniqua mountains aptly
named Beyond the Moon.
Montagu Pass
Spotted
✿ Leave De Rust, west on N12 ■ Black (Verreaux’s) eagle
for 8km; turn left onto gravel road ■ Rock kestrel
to Dysselsdorp ■ Cape rock thrush ♂♀
Recent rain in these parts had turned the ■ Familiar chat
road to mud and ruts and wet river crossings ■ Cape rockjumper
as we drove toward the Kammanassie hills. ■ Yellow weaver
At a water drift across the Olifants River, ■ Malachite sunbird
an old headstone was lettered Die Ou Tol ■ Ground woodpecker
Brug, Constructed 1937. Behind us, the
pockmarked and scarred Swartberge looked
as if they had been slashed with a knife.
Some time after Dysselsdorp, having
climbed 660m over rolling hills clothed
in all shades of green, we crossed the
Kammanassie River, its swollen waters
streaming swiftly over the bridge. The giant
Kammanassie dam wall loomed into sight
familiar chat
and we found ourselves being observed
by a klompie of inquisitive ostriches, their
fuzzy back-combed heads highlighted by a
weak beam of sunlight struggling to pierce
through the heavy-hanging cloud. The
birds were definitely enjoying the cool air;
we spotted a black-headed heron in flight,
pied starlings flashed their white undertails
in flight, male southern masked weavers,
Cape black crows and utterly entrancing
red bishops with their scarlet flamboyance.
cape wagtail
Ever present, keeping vigil on the telephone
wires, were black fiscal shrikes, clearly
identifiable by the white V on their backs.
The Kammanassie mountain slopes were
dotted with single Bitter aloes, a profusion of
Pig’s ears, tiny-leaved Spekboom and white-
cape rock thrush (female)
spiked Sweet-thorn acacias. Long-stemmed
yellow button daisies called Ganskos (Cenia
turbinata) and little yellow mesems with fat,
fingerlike leaves provided the colour.
Suddenly we encountered a stretch
of open, rolling country, then we were
back to slopes thickly covered in creamy
yellow-flowering black wattle. In exposed
sections there was evidence of sedimentary
rock layers, at times compressed into
cape rock thrush (male)
concertina-like bands.
39
 03I The Swartberg, Die Hel & Meiringspoort Passes
Indigenous Trees
■ Stinkwood (Ocotea bullata):
big, oval, crinkly leaves; distin-
guishable by two (or more) tiny
raised bubbles at the leaf base.
■ White Stinkwood (Celtis
africana): white to grey marbled
bark; leaves have three strong
branching veins, the top half is
serrated and ends in a pointed tip.
■ Common Turkey-berry
(Canthium inerme): also known as
bokdrol for its dark brown fruits!
Has small leaves on thin pick-axe-
like branchlets which grow at right
angles to the stem.
■ Forest elder (Nuxia floribunda):
leaves are tooth-edged with
pointed tip and a purplish central
vein; fallen trunks quickly regen-
erate new leaves and branches.
■ White elder or witels
(Platylophus trifoliatus): grows near
water, three-leaf grouping on stem;
trunk is wonderfully convoluted with
warts and knobbly protrusions.
■ Black ironwood (Olea
laurifolia): small dense leaflets; look
for wet, black leeching on the trunk.
■ Common Saffron (Cassine
papillosa): biggish leaves, edges
are serrated with little spines; bark
is yellow-orange underneath.
■ Assegai (Curtisia dentata):
saw-tooth serrations along leaf
edges, grey-green underneath;
dark-brown bark is deeply fissured.
■ Mountain hard pear (Olinia
emarginata): prolific small, glossy,
elliptical, dark green leaves; pale
brown-yellow flaky bark. Dense
clusters of dark red, round, glossy
berries noticable in March–June.
■ Real yellowwood (Podocarpus
latifolius): distinguishable from the
Outeniqua (common) yellowwood
by shorter, less fine, dense, long
narrow leaflets; also seeds are red-
brown instead of fleshy and yellow.
40
✿ Turn right onto N9, then left to
enter Montagu Pass
We had now entered the Montagu Pass
stretch, yet around the little settlement of
Herold it was intensely green and pastoral
with peacefully grazing horses, pretty coral
and pink watsonias, and farmed hops trailing
along tall trellises. Everything was engulfed
in mist. The vehicles climbed up an often
narrow road to the railway bridge at the crest
of the pass, some 750m above sea level,
where a sign announced a Pass-to-pass
Trail (Montagu to Outeniqua). Just before
the bridge stands a headstone for Amanda’s
grave (whoever she may be). Beyond, it felt
as if you were looking down from the rooftop
of the world. The mountains were so thickly
carpeted with fynbos, it was like a meeting
of fat, fuzzy green fingers. Sometimes thick
tracts of forest interspersed the fynbos and
now and then we caught glimpses of the
Outeniqua Pass winding away below. Along
Boshoff se Draai, low stone walls lining
the road edge were the only barrier to the
vertical drops into the valley below. Look out
for yellowwoods before the road meets the
…As we exited the pass, we looked back
to see a Road Closed sign blocking entry
to the pass…
bridge over the Keur, and next up is the Old
Toll House, a rock, stone and zinc-roofed
structure looking sad and rundown despite
its National Monument plaque. Nearby, a
river tumbled from the mountain’s heights
in a cappucino froth of foam. The road
degenerated into water rivulets and road
slides where tranches of earth had simply
slipped vertically downward. While pregnant
clouds draped themselves over the velvet-
green interlocking mountain slopes, river
water the colour of Guinness and milky
coffee rushed alongside the road and under
bridges, making progress difficult and slow.
As we exited the pass, we looked back to
see a Road Closed sign blocking entry to the
pass. . . We took the left-hand fork, staying
on gravel for 4km, for a more scenic route
into George.
die ou tol brug, olifants river
Beyond the Moon
✿ After 4km, turn left onto N9
We carried on through George, following the
signs for Knysna.
✿ Left towards Saasveld on old
George–Knysna road for 16km
As you leave George’s shopping strip
along Knysna Street, look out for signs to
the Nelson Mandela Campus at Glenwood
Avenue where you turn left onto the
Saasveld road. This section of the road has
been tarred since Knysna’s infamous floods,
but it still winds through thick indigenous
forest where tall leafy trees with thin stems
compete for the light, encroaching above the
road and forming a dense canopy together
with creepers and hanging moss. This is
followed by clumps of black wattle and gum
trees with, in-between, rolling pastoral hills.
We crossed an old stone bridge and later a
long railway-style bridge with water foaming
underneath. After 16 km, turn left onto the
Hoekwil/Karatara road. The turn for Beyond
the Moon is on the left between the Big Tree
and the tiny settlement of Woodville. The
farm, in fact, is situated along the banks of
the Woodville River.
✿ Left at Mandalay road sign
At the Mandalay road sign, look out for
the Beyond the Moon entrance on the left.
This place is pure utopia. Cradled by the
Outeniqua mountains and tightly bound by
indigenous forest, it has as its focal point a
giant lily vlei that lures bushbuck and wild
pig to drink at its edge. Accommodation is
in various self-catering cottages with names
like Francolin, Kestrel and Kingfisher;
then there is the River Sanctuary beside
a mountain stream and Froggy Cottage
overlooking the vlei – whose occupants
croak so loudly at night you need ear
plugs (they do subside at some stage in
the evening!). Hand-carved wooden fittings
(created by farm-owner and animation artist
Roger) give the cottages character and
walks into the forest will have you marvelling
at the abundance of indigenous tree species
(many carry identification plates). (See also
tree panel.) Our most magical moment was
briefly trailing the fireflies into the forest
after dark. We could already spot the tiny
pinprick flashes, brief and intermittent,
at the forest edge and as we penetrated
the thickets, the fluorescent sparks were
suddenly all around us, in front, to the side,
under our feet. On-off, on-off, never in the
same spot; ephemeral, evasive, but ever
there in the incredible stillness. It was easy
to imagine how stories of fairies grew out
of images such as this – in my mind’s eye
I could see tiny gossamer-winged beings
flitting through the darkness bearing their
tiny phosphorescent lanterns. Sleep came
sweetly that night.
…Sigh…end of yet another great trip…
Day 3
Beyond the Moon to Knysna (58km) ➲ Plan yOur TrIP!
■ Web resources:
The remainder of the old George–Knysna Swartberg/Die Hel:
Hel www.
road is still mostly gravel with short strips of capenature.co.za/reserves.
tar and runs through the blink-as-you-pass htm?reserve=Swartberg+Nature+
settlements of Karatara and Barrington. Reserve#reserve_tabs
We cruised through gently rolling hills and Annetjie Joubert’s accommodation:
wooded kloofs with pretty dams and grazing www.diehel.com
Jersey cows onto an open grassland plateau. Prince Albert: www.patourism.co.za
Then the plantations closed in again, with Meiringspoort: www.patourism.
firs and gums ranging from peak to valley. co.za/meiringspoort.htm
The S-bends of the winding 5km Homtini Beyond the Moon farm:
Pass run through dense forest, allowing www.beyondthemoon.co.za/
glimpses onto the climber-draped tree accommodation.asp
canopy below, and as we crossed the bridge ■ extra tourist resources &
over the Homtini River, the waters rippling contacts: see pages 158–160
over white pebbles and boulders looked like
Coca Cola on crushed ice. Shortly after is Our exPerIence
the turnoff to the left for the historic gold- ■ Best move on the trip:
mining complex of Millwood. Approximately Staying at the enchanted farm
8km after passing Millwood, we turned Beyond the Moon at the edge
of Knysna’s indigenous forest to
introduce us gently back to the
reality of having to go back to earn
a living again.
■ Worst move: Planning our trip
over a long weekend so the limited
accommodation in Die Hel was
fully booked.
■ Our advice to you: Definitely
arrange to stay a night in the scenic
Gamkaskloof valley
to make the tough
two-hour journey
down over 50km
worth the effort!
Try out a brightly
left onto the Phantom Pass road which painted traditional
winds through the pine and fir plantations house or contact
once belonging to Knysna’s ship-building Annetjie Joubert
Thesen family. Finally you have views onto (see contact details).
the Charlesford farm belonging to another
old Knysna family, the Duthies. The M
MaPS & GuIDeS
last stretch had the Knysna River on ■ Visitor’s Guide,
the left and Phantom Forest to the Garden Route
right, with a return to dense indigenous ISBN 9781868097913
forest closing in overhead, before we ■ Road Map,
emerged to meet the N2 into Knysna. Garden Route
ISBN 9781868098613
41
 OUR TOP
EACH
ROUTE
DRIVEN &
OUR TOP
VERIFIED

DETAILED ROUTE MAPS BY MARIËLLE RENSSEN

GPS POINTS
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