Bokkeveld Back Roads

If strenuous hikes, Quiver Tree forests and unspoiled mountain vistas get you going, then a tour to the Bokkeveld is a must – especially now that local farmers have put together a scenic 125km circular back-road route…

- Nick Yell

The Bokkeveld is a must-see on anyone’s travel itinerary if long stretches of open country get your imagination going. I had an additional incentive: the chance to test a brand-new circular gravel-road route that neighbouring farms in the Nieuwoudtville region have put together.

But one thing’s for sure, the corrugated R355 that links Ceres and Calvinia is a stern test for any 4x4 suspension and, right now, the back end of my test car, a Toyota Fortuner 2.8 GD-6, is bucking about on the corners. I was beginning to wonder why I had pleaded for an SUV instead of a bakkie.

Yes, I was a single passenger in a seven-person people carrier with a scant 80kg in luggage, and I was pushing on a bit, but I did get to thinking that the stock spring and damper settings were over- rm.

Time to get out then and drop tyre pressures to 1.7 front and 1.9 back, engage 4H and slow down a tad. The handling improved after that, but I wasn’t tempted to drop pressures much more on a road notorious for punctures.

I was on my way to a brainstorming breakaway at the well-known Papkuilsfontein Guest Farm outside Nieuwoudtville. I had been asked to come along by Cobus Theron, who manages the Drylands Conservation Programme (DCP) for the Endangered Wildlife Trust. My role was to see if any sustainable nature-based tourism activities could be added to the list with which they hope to help better conserve the unique bio-diversity of the Bokkeveld escarpment.

Cobus had also said there may be some rugged 4x4 driving opportunities on and around the escarpment, but I’d devised my own there-and-back dirt road test track of some 1 000km for the Fortuner just in case these didn’t materialise. And, as things turned out, I was glad I did.