Unodewaal
Pack Dog
In a few weeks myself and two other friends will be heading to the Eastern Cape for a 10 day trip.
As the week is coming closer (we're leaving on the 14th of November), we find ourselves more and more excited about the prospects of another adventure. So far our planning involves trying to hit the 8 major passes of the Eastern Cape. I found this article in the Drive website naming 8 passes to do, calling it the Tail of The Dragon.
The main passes that we are aiming for are:
We also want to go past the Wild Coast and visit Coffee Bay/Hole in the Wall.
We are breaking the trip up into three chapters:
Chapter 1: Exit JHB to Eastern Cape
Chapter 2: Eastern Cape Highlands
Chapter 3: Wild Coast and Baviaans Kloof.
At this stage we will leave JHB on the Friday, then head to Verkykerskop and try do some of the passes in the area around Memel. We'll then take the Nottingham Road to Underberg and stay at Himeville and maybe do Sani the next morning. We've done Sani twice already (watch the video here) so we're not that fussed if we need to push on, but it would be nice this time of the year.
From Underberg we're not sure how we'll head out yet - possibly do Naude's Nek, and then try do all the passes closest to there. Once we do the last pass there, we'll head to the coast to Coffee Bay/Hole in the Wall.
After Coffee Bay we're going to head through the Wild Coast and find our way to Kei Mouth after which we'll link up with the Baviaans Kloof. The route in this area is still a bit sketchy for us. I recently did the Imana Wild Ride mountain bike race that took us on cattle path's from Morgan Bay to Umngazi, but I don't think our dual sport bikes will be able to handle those small paths or the beach sections. Any route suggestions welcome here.
For the last bits of our route we thought of riding through Baviaanskloof from Patensie side and sleeping over one night in the Baviaans. We've stayed over at Rooi Hoek Camp Site before which was incredible, but also keen to check out other spots.
At this point we're ready to end the trip at George and trailer the bikes back (see forum comments on suggested routes back here), although if we can find a nice route back we could possibly take it, but it would mean we need to cut our trip shorter by about 2 days to make it back.
Click here to view a potential map of our POI's in Eastern Cape. I can only create 8 POI's, but I've got a Google Earth KML that I'm also working on (it's just a bit crap to work with I find) and will happily share once it's complete.
If anyone here has some advice for this route I'd love to get feedback. Some questions I still have about the trip planning:
Any feedback is deeply appreciated. We'll also be documenting the whole trip with photo's and at least one video, so there will be a great ride report coming after this.
As the week is coming closer (we're leaving on the 14th of November), we find ourselves more and more excited about the prospects of another adventure. So far our planning involves trying to hit the 8 major passes of the Eastern Cape. I found this article in the Drive website naming 8 passes to do, calling it the Tail of The Dragon.
The main passes that we are aiming for are:
- Naude's Nek
Lundean's Nek
Bastervoet Pass
Baviaanskloof pass
Otto Du Plessis Pass
Joubert's Pass
Barkly Pass
Carlisles Pass
We also want to go past the Wild Coast and visit Coffee Bay/Hole in the Wall.
We are breaking the trip up into three chapters:
Chapter 1: Exit JHB to Eastern Cape
Chapter 2: Eastern Cape Highlands
Chapter 3: Wild Coast and Baviaans Kloof.
At this stage we will leave JHB on the Friday, then head to Verkykerskop and try do some of the passes in the area around Memel. We'll then take the Nottingham Road to Underberg and stay at Himeville and maybe do Sani the next morning. We've done Sani twice already (watch the video here) so we're not that fussed if we need to push on, but it would be nice this time of the year.
From Underberg we're not sure how we'll head out yet - possibly do Naude's Nek, and then try do all the passes closest to there. Once we do the last pass there, we'll head to the coast to Coffee Bay/Hole in the Wall.
After Coffee Bay we're going to head through the Wild Coast and find our way to Kei Mouth after which we'll link up with the Baviaans Kloof. The route in this area is still a bit sketchy for us. I recently did the Imana Wild Ride mountain bike race that took us on cattle path's from Morgan Bay to Umngazi, but I don't think our dual sport bikes will be able to handle those small paths or the beach sections. Any route suggestions welcome here.
For the last bits of our route we thought of riding through Baviaanskloof from Patensie side and sleeping over one night in the Baviaans. We've stayed over at Rooi Hoek Camp Site before which was incredible, but also keen to check out other spots.
At this point we're ready to end the trip at George and trailer the bikes back (see forum comments on suggested routes back here), although if we can find a nice route back we could possibly take it, but it would mean we need to cut our trip shorter by about 2 days to make it back.
Click here to view a potential map of our POI's in Eastern Cape. I can only create 8 POI's, but I've got a Google Earth KML that I'm also working on (it's just a bit crap to work with I find) and will happily share once it's complete.
If anyone here has some advice for this route I'd love to get feedback. Some questions I still have about the trip planning:
- 1) How much time should we give ourselves to do the passes around Naude's Nek area? They seem to be quite close to each other, but I know looks can be deceiving.
2) What is the best/most interesting route to take from Naude's Nek Area to Coffee Bay?
3) What are the interesting routes along the Wild Coast?
4) Interesting routes after Eastern Cape to Baviaanskloof?
5) What are must do places along the routes - and where should we stop for camping or sleeping?
6) Suggestions for heading back - should we exit Baviaans at Willowmore and head straight back home, or should we spend the extra two days to George and do some of the passes on the Garden Route?
7) How damn feasible do you think this is? We have a Friday till the next Sunday (we all work for ourselves and can be back a little bit later than the Sunday, but we do also need to not turn it into a 2 week epic).
Any feedback is deeply appreciated. We'll also be documenting the whole trip with photo's and at least one video, so there will be a great ride report coming after this.
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