Adventure motorcycling: Garden Route to Karoo (Garden Route and Karoo — written for Offroad & Adventure in 2014.)

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Taking off soon after arriving at The Dunes resort in Keurboomstrand, I realised what a well-positioned place this was to begin an adventure ride from. Even though you have to do a fair bit of tar before the dirt track to Oyster Bay en route to Cape Saint Francis, the N2 in these parts is such a beautiful road — it’s cloistered by indigenous forests and crosses many dramatic gorges — you don’t even mind paying a toll fee. And that’s rare in SA these days.

Enjoyable as it was, I got off the busier N2 and took the old coastal R102 towards Woodlands. Riding this serene old route, through verdant farmlands crammed with Jersey and Friesland milking herds, I soaked up the nostalgic scents of musty molasses and kraal wood smoke that evoked memories of the holiday farms of my youth. If I’d had a bit more time, I probably would have got onto the R102 even earlier – just outside The Crags – and done the Grootrivier Pass en route to Nature’s Valley.

After meeting up with my PE adventure motorcycling friends, Johan and Antonette Hamman, at the Cape Saint Francis lighthouse, we set off on our back roads sortie towards Kareedouw. I’d planned a route through Humansdorp, across the N2 and then onto a 70-odd kilometre westward-heading network of dirt tracks that runs through the valleys of the Kouga and Tsitsikamma Mountains.

The start of the westward dirt track is roughly eight kilometres north of the N2 and begins next to some earthworks on the left. Knowing the route, Johan decided to lead us and I was enjoying following for a change as it meant I could just take in the scenery without having to navigate. And it was a ride which had the best of bucolic beauty to offer: lily-filled dams with horses grazing knee-deep in lush grasslands; some kloofs and wooded valleys; a horizon constantly filled with rows of jagged, purple-grey mountain peaks and a mostly coarse grained gravel road that transported you through it. But the climax of this ride was the nameless pass that brought us to Kareedouw over the Krom River and past the Assegaaibosch Lodge.

“This is quite a happening little town,” I quip to Johan standing at the bar counter of a Kareedouw sports-bar-cum-restaurant.

“Ja, and we’ve even got cold beer,” comes a chirp from a well-oiled farmer nearby.

We’d wanted to go to the legendary Norma Jean’s restaurant down the road, but it was unfortunately closed. Yet there’s certainly no shortage of good eateries and watering holes in Kareedouw and after some refreshment we head off up the Langkloof towards Avontuur.

Ever the gentleman, Johan let me go in front to “travel at a speed I’m comfortable with”. Even for a non-tar enthusiast, the stretch of road between Kareedouw and Joubertinia just begs to be ridden at a good lick, and although I’m not much of a speed merchant, I’m also loathed to hold up Johan and Antonette on their limited edition BMW GS1200 Adventure.

Our overnight accommodation at Haartebeest Post was only about 16 kilometres out of Uniondale. The old, shabby-chic farmhouse, which is divided into three separate sleeping quarters (sleeping ten in total) was a serendipitous find, and the crusty Karoo environment was a welcome contrast to the dazzling green of the route we’d experienced so far.

After settling in and starting the braai fire we sipped on cool sun downers, Antonette and I choosing to watch Johan ply his magic at the cooking fire from a distance rather than interfere. The clouds turned a soft cerise as the sun made for the horizon and swallows swirled overhead as a nearby wind pump clanked crystal clear groundwater to the surface.

Following an excellent breakfast at the characterful Uniondale Lodge the next morning, Johan and Antonette led the way to the old British fort atop a hill overlooking the town. It’s an engaging ride up a raggedy jeep track and the historic aura of the place, as well as the beautiful view, make it a must do when in the area. Apparently one of five forts built to guard the town — a prominent wagon building centre in the day — the soldiers stationed here must have had a bird’s eye view of any Boer movements in the area.

It wasn’t long until we were at the top of one of the most enchanting of all SA’s dirt tracks, Prince Alfred’s Pass. Built by Thomas Bain and completed in 1867, most of this pass is exactly the same as it was then, testimony to this master road builder’s engineering prowess. And it’s an absolute pleasure to ride on an adventure motor bike. Apart from some tight corners and steep slopes, the major challenge you face is bike-oblivious motorists coming the other way. But, in the event of any near misses, Angie’s G-Spot in De Vlugt is the perfect place to un-jangle your nerves and, of course, quench your thirst.

A friend of mine in Plett had mentioned that I should take in the incredible view from nearby Spitskoppe and we decided to follow his advice. It was the second challenging hill we scaled that day, but if the view from the old Uniondale fort was beautiful, this one was jaw-dropping stuff. Not only did it provide a spectacular 360° view, we were able to see the Robberg Peninsula and the Knysna heads in one sweep.Judging from the mushy surface of the dirt track marked “Klipdrif”, there had clearly been a lot of rain recently; but I raced off undeterred by the slime, in search of the Oyster Bay turn-off I expected to be just up ahead. Yet it was nowhere to be seen and after setting off up a few initially promising–looking farm tracks I eventually found a turn-off to “Paradysstrand”, a name I was fortunately able dredge up from my earlier map studies of the route.

After meeting up with my PE adventure motorcycling friends, Johan and Antonette Hamman, at the Cape Saint Francis lighthouse, we set off on our back roads sortie towards Kareedouw. I’d planned a route through Humansdorp, across the N2 and then onto a 70-odd kilometre westward-heading network of dirt tracks that runs through the valleys of the Kouga and Tsitsikamma Mountains.