Over the hills and far away

Our route starts in the tiny village of Op-die-Berg in the Koue Bokkeveld.

Fill up at the co-op – the pumps are open all week, but they close in the late afternoon – before heading north on the R303 regional road.

Barely 500 m outside Op-die-Berg, you’ll encounter a road sign that directs you to the right on the ‘Swartrug afd road’ and the Ceres Karoo. Take it. The blacktop passes numerous orchards including those of Boplaas where the Afrikaner poets Boerneef and Carl Boplaas grew up, and where the Van der Merwe family still farms today. The tar comes to an end after 17 km and it turns to gravel. Don’t carry on but turn left onto the P2244 minor road leading to the Ceres Karoo.

It’s a lovely gravel road past fruit trees on the right and irrigation dams on the left. After about 2 km on this road, you drive over a short mountain pass called the Klein Cederberg Pass, and then, 7 km later, you reach a single-lane bridge over the intermittent Riet River. To the right of the bridge are sand dunes with visible tracks, perhaps it’s a 4x4 playground for the area’s young folk.

Shortly beyond the Riet River, the gravel road switches to tar – this is the Katbakkies Pass, which winds its way up the Skurweberg in front of you.

It’s a fairly steep mountain pass with a gradient of 1:4 (for every four metres you move forward, you rise by one metre). It may not sound particularly steep, but vehicles with small-capacity engines will have to downshift to low gears to master the incline.

Pull over at one of the two lookout points at the top of Katbakkies Pass and take a moment to look back at the landscape you’ve left behind. Note especially the highest peak in the west; it is Sneeukop, a 2 069 m tall spire that dominates the horizon.