Oudsthoorn Day 3-Swartberg Pass

We were up just before 7am. The wind had dropped off overnight leaving it very warm in the caravan.
After coffees we got dressed and because I still keep getting a cramp in my right calve we popped down to the local chequers supermarket to get some vitamin tablets and done rehydration powders.
We left the supermarket just after 9am. We had a full day of driving ahead of us today and I wanted to get the first but over with quite early to avoid any hold ups so we set the sat nav and drove back in the direction of the canto caves but just before we got to them we turned left heading for the swartbergpass. 10 miles later there was a sign saying the tarmac was ending and before we knew it we were onto a gravel track that narrowed into just wider than a single lane and started climbing.
The construction of the Swartberg pass was started under the guidance of Jan Tassies who used 100 workers from Mozambique. After 13 months he went bankrupt and also only completed 6 km of the road! The rest of the pass was built between 1883 and 1888 by Thomas Bain, son of the famous Andrew Geddes Bain who built Bain's Kloof Pass and many more. It followed their earlier construction of another pass in 1858, the Meiringspoort, through the same mountains but further east, the way we would be coming back.
It was built using convict labour, and opened on 10 January 1888. The dry-stone retaining walls, supporting some of its hairpin bends, are still in place and are over 130 years old.
The majority of gradients were probably 10% and the whole pass is approximately 10 miles long, 5 miles up and five miles down the other side. It is an amazing drive entirely on gravel and the hairpin bends have the passenger looking over the edges as we get further and further up the mountain. Just before the summit the gradient rears up to 20% and there are 7 or 8 extremely tight hairpin bends.
We stopped at the top to take in the view from our 1550 meter viewpoint and it was breathtaking. But nowhere near as breathtaking as the drive down the other side.
We drove across a very small plateau at the top of the summit and up one last hill then rounded a bend a pointed the car downwards and all we could see was switchbacks. It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. I could see a car coming up the pass as we descended and couldn’t work out why he looked so close but was so far down and as we rounded another hairpin the road just dropped away at an incredible slope. I stayed in second gear controlling our speed the entire way.
We stopped just before the end for more pictures but they can’t really do it justice. This was one of the best roads we have ever driven.
We took the pass to get to a town on the other side called Prince Albert, a quaint little town abit like De Rust yesterday with a lot of nothing unless you like cafes. Fortunately it was now 11:45am and we stopped for lunch.
After lunch we took a wander down the Main Street and visited the museum where we couldn’t take photos, then it was back to the car for the drive home.
We spun the car around and headed back the way we had came until we came to the entrance of the Swartberg Pass and continued on the tarmac road past it. This route was 40 miles longer but took us through the Meringspoort Pass which is just as beautiful as the Swartberg and is in the same mountain range. The only difference is it is tarmac and has rest stops on route. It is also a much faster road and we were travelling at 120km an hour when I spotted a large tortoise coming onto the other side of the road so I quickly stopped and ran back and grabbed the tortoise just before 3 more cars came hurtling down the road.
Moving on we then stopped at one of the rest areas to view a big waterfall and a lady recognised me and said “ did you rescue the tortoise” and I said “ yes”, then she said to Ellie, “ you want to marry him”. “Too late, I already did” she replied.
Back in the car we drove back through De Rust and onto Oudsthoorn arriving back into town at 3:30pm. The first thing we did was take the car to a car wash as I promised Ghost a wash for getting us through the 4x4 trails in mountain zebra. We got talking to the owner and then another local and by the time we left it had gone 5pm. Luckily camp was just 5 minutes away.
Back at camp I lit the Braai and we had steak and mashed potato with Braai relish it was super good, after dinner we just chilled at camp and as it was so warm we sat up until 8:30pm.Läs mer