Going postal
This historic Karoo-Cederberg route is a must for 4x4 enthusiasts and adventure bikers. TYSON JOPSON did it over a long weekend
There’s a story that floats between the farmhouses and padstals of the Tankwa Karoo. It’s rather short on detail – most versions aren’t longer than a sentence or two. But everyone knows it, and in the Karoo, if everyone knows something then it must be true. It is the story of a young girl who walked alone over the Tra-Tra Mountains. From a farm at Elandsvlei in the Tankwa, she walked 57 kilometres in the searing heat to Wupperthal missionary station in the Cederberg. When she arrived she handed over a parcel containing mail. And then she turned around and walked back again. She did this every week. Today that route is known as the Old Postal Route. And the ‘Old’ is very important because the trail, for the most part, has remained largely unchanged. ‘Old’ is also important because we’ve come a long way since the days of delivering mail on foot. In fact, we don’t do all that much on foot at all any more. And for those who like exploring the most remote reaches of our country, that is truly a glorious development. To make the most of the glorious development of motorised transport, a friend and I took a long weekend from Cape Town to ride the famous Old Postal Route. We left town on a sunny Friday afternoon, Chris on an old KTM640 that he once rode from Cyprus to Cape Town, and me on my KLR650. There are a number of ways to get to this part of the world. For bikers, none is better than the route through Wellington, over Bainskloof Pass and into Ceres. From Ceres we headed north to Op Die Berg and then onto the first bit of gravel on the journey, up and over Katbakkies Pass towards the infamous R355, a tyre-chomping stretch of corrugated gravel that links Ceres to Calvinia, and will cause anyone who’s ever been to AfrikaBurn to shudder at the sound of its name. The road runs parallel to the Doring River, and on the banks of a dam off one of its small tributaries is
Die Mond – a wonderful patch of green in the desert. It was our first overnight stop and also where we met up with Johan van der Walt, an anaesthetist, friend and the custodian of our luggage and food for the night. Johan had travelled ahead and, as planned, had two cold beers ready for when we arrived. It was a warm afternoon and we didn’t bother setting up our tents, instead choosing to sleep under the stars. The following day Chris and I headed north to tackle the meat and potatoes of this route. Johan, in his sedan, headed south. We would meet on the other side, at Cederberg Oasis. It wasn’t even 9am before the full spectrum of heat hit us. By the time we arrived at Elandsvlei, the start of the 4x4 trail, it felt like midday on the sun. The Old Postal Route starts with a few sandy sections and two river crossings (check the water levels with locals; if it’s too high, the route may become impassable). Soon after, we really were in the middle of nowhere. Ancient, scorched shale stretched out for miles in every direction and we trundled on. Next up was Karretjies Pass. It’s technical, steep and very rocky and, on an adventure bike, you need your wits about you to keep it on two wheels. Once on the plateau, Chris and I cruised along marble-like gravel until the sight of rooibos plantations came into view. From there we descended Kraaiberg Pass down to the mission station in Wupperthal. All in all, the ride from Die Mond to Wupperthal took us the better part of four hours. It’s a long time to cover 80-odd
kilometres, but a far cry from the half-a-week it took that poor girl with her post. We cooled off in the shade of some old gum trees in Wupperthal before tackling the final section, the Eselbank Pass, down to our campsite for the night. It’s a short but challenging 4x4 route with a great mix of rocks and sand, and at the other end riders or drivers are rewarded with a dip in a secret rock pool just outside the small farming hamlet of Eselbank. We were hungry so we skipped the pool and headed straight for Cederberg Oasis. There, we again found our anaesthetist. He prescribed two ice-cold beers and, doctor’s orders, we glugged them down, hot, exhausted and thrilled to have completed such a challenging route. The following morning we were joined by some friends and spent the early hours exploring this region of the Cederberg. Some hiked up the nearby mountains, others joined us in visiting that rock pool, and some preferred to spend the day hanging out at the Oasis. Soon, it was time to go. Chris and I took the gravel road past Cederberg Private Cellars to see how much more gravel we could squeeze into the home journey. A lot, it turns out – we tracked the Olifants River down to Citrusdal and then continued south to Ceres on the R303, which is home to Middelburg Pass, a rather epic gravel descent that twists and turns back on itself before the straight tar drag back to Ceres and then home. All in all, we’d ridden 12 mountain passes in a weekend – some long, some short, some challenging. All special in their own way.