This scenic gem of a road is little known, and for several reasons. But it is just this, its lesser known status, that makes it extra special. You can go slower, enjoy the surroundings and even have a swim and a braai!
The route starts just North of the little town of Herold, situated in the Outeniqua mountain range. This route forms a natural extension to the historic Montagu pass that runs over the Outeniqua mountain range from George to Herold, but sadly the pass is in a state of disrepair currently. It is probably the splendour of what was the Montagu Pass, that made Paardepoort a little more obscure and much less known.
Our featured route is just over 44km and will take about 1 hour travel time without stops, but stop you will. It starts on the N9, crosses the N12 and exits onto R328 between Oudtshoorn and Mossel Bay, North of Robertson Pass.
Traveling along the N9 from George to Uniondale, about 30km after you left George, you will find the turn-off to Herold on the right and about 100m after that the turn-off to Paardepoort on your left.
You turn off the N9 and straight onto gravel, heading North.
Across the plain and just before you enter the poort through the mountain, there is a somewhat discreet sign, announcing you are entering Paardepoort.
As soon as you enter the Poort you can see the old road, built with the dry-stone wall method similar to Swartberg Pass, on the opposite side of the river.
According to the website Mountainpasses SA, once the Montagu Pass had been completed in 1847 the convicts whom had worked on the Montagu Pass were transferred to Paardepoort, where an obvious path through the mountains was a natural progression of the Montagu pass northwards to Oudtshoorn. The original road on the western bank of the Doring River was only one lane wide, but it did offer passing opportunities. The road was opened in 1850.
The new road on the eastern bank of the poort was built in in the 1930’s offering a safer, wider road. The road has been blasted out of the rock-face and still remains fairly narrow. The scenery is pleasant as the road meanders next to the river, faithfully copying its course for several kilometers. The stonework on the new road is a work of art in itself.
At one point the river forms a pool, perfect for swimming if it is a hot day. Just make sure you park somewhere safe, not obscuring the road.
This is an older photo of myself riding through Paardepoort in the opposite direction during the launch of the new BMW 1250GS. It is my favourite Paardepoort photo, taken by Rob Till
Exiting the poort into the Klein Karoo proper you ride / drive a short distance to come to a cross in the road that my friends and I call the centre of the world if you are an Adventure Biker. We sometimes even meet up at this crossing before a ride. Why? Because from this point you can go anywhere! Riding South you go through Paardepoort, you used to be able to cross Montagu pass and if you kept going you could ride all the way to Cape Augulhas, the Southernmost point of Africa, even crossing a river using a pontoon at one stage.
Riding East you can do Baviaanskloof, Addo, Lesotho and all the way to Mozambique. If you hop the pond you can even ride Madagascar! Go North and you can ride Swartberg Pass, the Karoo, all the way up through Africa and even up to Russia and the Road of Bones. East lies the Cederberg, West Coast and if you want you can travel further East and go ride South America! All from this spot.
Today we will not be traveling that far though, we head east.
This shortish stretch of around 8km will take you to the N12 where you turn right direction Oudtshoorn, but only for 800m where you leave the tar again turning left toward Zebra.
This is the only section that can be somewhat tricky. After about 3km at the first turnoff keep left and the at the Y keep right. Just make sure you follow the signs that say Mount Hope.
Now you can relax and enjoy the rest of the Klein Karoo Scenery. It changes with every season and is especially spectacular after it has rained.
Around 12km after the Zebra turn-off the turns right. You can carry on straight also, but its quite clear that the main route turns right.
The road takes you over some heights and at the top there is a natural viewpoint over the whole area with a small clearing perfect for a roadside braai (we are busy with a roadside braai project also, so check back on this website soon if that is something that interests you).
From here you drop down into a green valley and all the way down to the river.
And all to soon its over. The road exits onto the R328 connecting Oudtshoorn and Mossel Bay. If you wanted to do the route in reverse, this is where you would start. The sign says Mount Hope.
When we plan and discover routes (yes, you can discover routes on a map – read here) we use the Tracks 4 Africa and Slingsby Paper maps. These are an investment in your adventuring life and well worth it. Another investment well worth it, that we’d like to endorse (and no, we are not paid for this promotion – I recommend these purely because I myself found it to be extremely useful) is a subscription to www.mountainpassessouthafrica.co.za.
The subscription membership part is where the bulk of the info of Paardepoort comes from. I have known about and ridden Paardepoort for 10+ years and even I learned a lot more about the poort after I joined MPSA. It is an invaluable resource if you like to explore our country!
Article: Johann van Tonder