South Africa 2023: The Karoo Day (7 passes) 4K

South Africa 2023: The Karoo Day (7 passes) 4K

This video is from day 3 of my mini tour of South Africa in December 2023. The route was Oudtshoorn to Worcester, which initially looked like a fairly short road ride. I added in a few gravel roads to make it a bit more interesting, only to find that the it was almost all gravel.

Key roads were:

Before lunch in Calitzdorp:
Doringkloof Pass https://mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za/find-a-pass/western-cape/item/1443-doringkloof-pass.html
Huis se Hoogte Pass https://mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za/find-a-pass/western-cape/item/707-huis-se-hoogte-pass-p363.html
Kruisrivierpoort https://www.mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za/find-a-pass/western-cape/item/1448-kruisrivierpoort-p1706.html

After Lunch:
Seweweekspoort https://mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za/find-a-pass/western-cape/item/263-seweweeks-poort.html
Koueveld Pass https://mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za/find-a-pass/western-cape/item/471-koueveld-pass-r323.html
Varsbokkraal Pass https://mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za/find-a-pass/western-cape/item/829-varsbokkraal-pass-p1469.html
Witwaterspoort https://www.mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za/find-a-pass/western-cape/item/830-witwaterspoort-pass-p1468.html

Like I said, pretty amazing!

It’s one of the best days riding I’ve ever had, maybe even the best. No famous passes, no notable towns or cities and just me on my own and a couple of hundred kilometres of gravel roads in spectacular scenery.

I’ll try to put a google maps link here, but it does some funny stuff with gravel roads, so if it doesn’t quite work out, you have my apologies.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/W1PeNPSyAbqUh1c66

I know there’s a bit too much ‘one camera on the chin’ footage, but when standing the bar camera isn’t much help. I’ve tried to cut out as much as possible, but still leave enough in there to give you an idea of what it’s like.

This day I would do again!

Thanks for watching.

Hi there Andre here from Peak motorcycles today is day three of my short tour of South Africa in December 2023 so today I’m going to go from here in urin over to uh Worcester uh not Worcester and Worcester but Worcester here uh not far north of Cape Town so

There is the Garden Route there like the main road that goes up there but I’ve had a look on a website I found for South Africa mountain passes which was excellent I’ll put some links in the description and there’s a couple of passes I can take along the way which

Should uh make it a little bit more interesting it was only going to be a short day otherwise I think just over 3 hours and I think with doing half of it on dirt roads that goes up to about five so yeah looking forward to getting back

On the road and let’s see what it looks like off we go for day three actually every time i’ I’ve been out of this hotel I’ve gone past this road sign that says boom I’d like to think there used to be a boom but I think it might be that you know the

Sound that you have to make when you go over the speed bump you saw my video from yesterday this bit might look a little bit familiar so I’m actually heading up the same way as if I was going to the smartsburg pass uh and then the pass I’m taking

Today actually is heads West just about the same place where the start pass starts it’s not particularly long uh it’s just a few kilometers links in with a couple of others uh and just takes bit of the main road out the day plus I get to ride this

Bit again and even though this is the r328 it’s still pretty glorious it’s quite late in the day today it’s gone 12 I ended up getting in quite late last night and decid that as I’m on holiday I could have a li in today over there to

The right and ahead of me that’s the Mountain range through which the scarber pass goes there little little C around there looks on the camera that’s where the pass goes over it’s quite hard to see it from down here uh but if you have a look at my video from yesterday um

That really was rather fun all right then here we go heading towards ket’s D on this road transition from tarmac to uh to gravel I guess a lot of people slam on the brakes which is why it’s a bit rutted just at the start looking forward to this another vehicle right away the

Trail is not particularly difficult there’s just a bit of gravel on it here and there and occasionally where the Rocks show through it gets a little bit bumpy but to be able to ride through the scenery really is just just stunning there’s a few bits like this where it’s

Been patched up a bit and there’s just a lot of loose gravel chance are great on mostly Road oriented tires but this top GSA seems to be coping pretty well between the traction control the link braking it’s probably doing a lot of the work for me uh but yeah other than a bit

Of lightness at the front end from time to time uh it seems to be coping really well so it’s definitely getting a bit more technical as you can see we’ve got exposed rocks there’s no barriers it’s no longer that big wide open road uh that I had

Before uh but it’s still quite fun there we go little skit yeah it’s like green laning in the summer well temperatures hit 31 C it’s definitely feeling a lot warmer I’m also quite low uh down to my right is I’m actually down by the river one of the the lowest bits that I’ve

Been uh so far today which probably doesn’t help the temperature cuz it was cooling down a bit at higher elevations way too much video of this bit of road but it’s just been so cool and I think it must be more than 50 km it’s about 30

M or so just these gravel Trails some bits are quite nice like this other bits you just get a few rocks poking up and through but I’ve seen two Africa twins going the other way and then I saw two vehicles parked by a building and that’s

Been it traffic wise there’s not been a single gate I’ve had to open uh there’s not been any towns there’s not been anything really to stop for so in a way I suppose I’m quite happy that I’m still uh the right way up but it’s just so cool to come and do

This now I’m sure that some of you live in parts of the world where this is not unusual in the UK where there’s not many places in England I think where you can ride this far without seeing anyone on Trails like this uh yeah I love it I think I’ll be

Back farac it’s not for very far but it’s quite nice to have a sit down should probably find some more water as well so that was a fun morning well fun couple of hours I left quite late I’ve stopped in CET D for some lunch at a

Place called evarts and it really is just a little Oasis of calm it was getting up to about 32 I think 33 was the highest I saw on the on the dash uh and when I pulled in there’s a load of bikes parked outside there’s a big tour

Group coming through uh so it seemed like a reasonable place to stop and it was I can recommend the ribs right then I’m going to get back on the bike I’ve got a little bit of road to do and then I’m back on a Long Trail it’s going to

Take me almost all the way to Worcester here we go right now I’m riding a road which is called a Route 62 which I think has been compared toout Route 66 in the US except this one is for the Western Cape and I must admit it

Is rather fun uh it goes up and down a bit we’re not really going over mountain passes and most of it is quite wide open like this but it’s certainly fast certainly flowing there’s so many fun Corners with like really good sight lines and if you come on behind a car

They just move over onto the yellow bit so you have space to get past and yeah it’s a nice way to get between the trails this is more of Route 62 as you can see it’s not short on landscape and it’s quite nice to be coming up a road

With a crash barrier for a change we’ve done all these dirt dirt passes where might get a little row of stones if you’re lucky here on a Cropper road and it really is an amazing Road all these Corners are quite nicely banked so you can have a real play through this spectacular landscape

So this think this is the much further west than the swartberg pass that I went over yesterday and I’m guessing it must be the end part the Western further Westerly bit of the same mountain range that short and sweet uh back on the gravel again this time for 37

Km can’t wait looks like it’s following bottom of the canyon it’s still quite wide open but there’s a lots of loose gravel on it uh which is kind of fun with these road tires but nothing that seems to be too severe so far and wow just really really

Spectacular I’m guessing this is a river a valley that’s just carved its way through the rocks and they put a trail that goes through it right through the middle this bit com up here looks a little bit narrow at least it might be a little bit cooler wow that’s pretty cool a little

Bumpy wow that’s amazing I think I might be almost through the mountain range at least it looks like it because instead of having massive cliffs in front of me now uh I can see a lot more blue sky and I think maybe after a couple more bends maybe

That’s it at the other end the temperature dropped off a lot so it might just be that I’ve gone a lot higher hello Little Critter whatever that is it’s just been brilliant I mean this the scenery is I’ve taken a few clips of it but it’s been like this for

Pretty much the all way and I think I didn’t even really realize that this was a gravel road I think when I picked it on my route app uh I actually just thought this was a regular road that was going to take me up to the next next one

So I’m delighted that it turned out like this this is it out the other side that was brilliant that was so much fun so we’ve come through the mountains now on the left hand side and there’s this glorious fast Gravel Road that I could to sip along it’s nearly as quick as

Actually being on the main Highway and you can see the mountains there to my left it’s just it’s just beautiful I love it well I think that’s the most fun I’ve had on the trip so far so turning off the 62 I had that sort of dirt road that

Road wound through a canyon you seemed to go on for miles and miles just really impressive steep sided Canyon uh just glorious glorious riding and I came out on the other side and I think I’m KN the crew instead of West C and here that dirt road that was it was

Dead straight pretty much for the occasional bank but I don’t know whether it’s just the surface was a little bit better under the gravel or that I’ve written enough for a bit now that the confidence has building a bit but I was able to do most of that stretch I don’t

Know how far it was I’ll check when I get back I’m guessing maybe 20 maybe 30 km at 100 km an hour 110 without feeling like I was about to do myself an injury just you know really exhilarating to be standing through that scenery just zipping along and having

Confidence the bike’s going to do its thing I was almost a little bit disappointed when just back there the the gravel came to an end was back on the TAC but hey you know what this isn’t too bad either I can cope with this after being in the mountains for

Such a long time I suddenly find myself in this big desert plane you can see more Mountains in the distance but it’s probably the the flattest bit of land I’ve seen in a while Lo just a short blast up that t and now I think this is the next dirt

Road and this is the long bit this is the bit that runs long side uh the highway One National one so we getting the right gear see what we can do with this so yeah it’s breathtaking I guess as it runs parallel to the front to the highway there won’t be that many

Vehicles on it because unless you actually want to ride this or drive this you probably pick the quicker rout but yeah today is blowing me away today I thought might almost be like the shorter day that wasn’t un interesting after the other days but no I think this has been

My favorite day so far that was just to give you an idea about what it’s like when you do find a vehicle coming the other way there’s been quite a few on this stretch so I’ve been getting good at holding my breath I can’t talk while I’m holding my breath

Uh but what I found is the most fun is when you get two back Tob backs the first one comes through and you can’t see and then the second one that’s coming through you kind of know it’s there cuz you saw it from a distance but

They can’t see you cuz you’re in a p cloud of dust so I’m taking those bits just a little bit easier but wow this place is just stunning you see that quite a lot of this has got washed out and it’s been sort of sketchily repaired

So it’s quite a bit rougher than some of the other bits that I’ve been on uh but still the GSA still coping on its almost road tires so uh yeah what a way to spend I think it’s Wednesday today so I’ve got about 7 km still to go

Before I get to the o1 just want to talk a bit about what this has been like uh if you don’t ride a bike well you’re probably not watching this anyway if you do ride a bike sometimes you just have a day or a ride or something you do that

Is just life affirming you know makes you think yeah this is why I’m doing this this is this is my best life and I’ve just had can’t even remember 3 four 5 hours at roads like this at speeds that maybe I thought I wouldn’t be able

To do but it’s funny how your confidence just creeps up in this spectacular scenery beautiful weather and this is what it’s all about and I don’t just mean riding motorbikes I mean life living your best life doing things like this that just make you realize it’s all worthwhile that’s probably enough of that

I can go back to telling you just how much fun I’m having but if you ride a bike and you’ve had a day like that you’ll you’ll probably get an idea about what I’m talking about but it is just just the best the best the best love it so that is

It that is the end end of an absolutely epic trail Ride end one seems a little bit dull now very dull in fact but it will get me to the hotel before dark so this is the last of my ride today Road I think count just massive SE I mean the the road just goes on and on to my right Hills in the

M Big L we came down a really steep hill we rescue L emergency escape L the trucks and it’s just been I was looking forward to this lastday but actually to cover the last few km and actually have this amazing L day quite well so that’s me all done

For day three uh I’m quite Dusty um it’s just an epic riding day uh I’d come back and do this day again uh it’s a nice cooling breeze now the temperatures dropped off from the 33 In the Heat of the day uh I’m here in the

Small town of Worcester for the night so it looks like there’s a few restaurants I can walk to so I’m going to go and check those out but yeah um it’s just it’s just an amazing an amazing day to ride a motorcycle um you probably got

That from some of the things that I said uh you can’t really explain it in a video uh but if you ride a bike and you’ve had a day like this then you’ll know what I mean anyway I hope that’s been interesting and useful maybe I’ll see you next time thanks for watching