The Eight Mountain Passes of the Eastern Cape Drakensberg

By Kate Nelson — Barkly East, Eastern Cape

The Eight Mountain Passes of the Eastern Cape Drakensberg (includ­ing the highest dirt road in South Africa) — The Eastern Cape Drakensberg is a devel­op­ing and unspoiled area, per­fect for 4x4 enthu­si­asts and cur­rently offer­ing superb value for money. For the ulti­mate driv­ing adven­ture com­bin­ing spec­tac­u­lar moun­tain views with some of the highest passes in South Africa, see if you can com­plete the ‘Eight Passes Challenge’ ...

Naudes’s Nek

Naudes’s Nek – Maclear to Rhodes
With a sum­mit of over 2,920m above sea level, Naudés Nek Pass is the highest dirt road in South Africa. Connecting Maclear with his­tor­ical Rhodes this pass is based on the route taken by the intrepid Naudé broth­ers in the 1890s. Following the path that their horses instinct­ively took they carved out the route with picks and shovels. Today the road is more usu­ally trav­elled in a com­fort­able 4x4 vehicle, but it still presents a chal­lenge, par­tic­u­larly in winter when heavy snow­falls are com­mon. Local advice regard­ing weather and road con­di­tions should be heeded before attempt­ing this spec­tac­u­lar pass.

Volunteershoek Pass — Rhodes to Tiffindell Ski Resort
Rhodes has a col­our­ful his­tory dat­ing back to the 1880s and fea­tures many Victorian build­ings. In 1997 the entire vil­lage was pro­claimed as a Conservation Area in the Government Gazette which gives it offi­cial pro­tec­tion in order to pre­serve its unique char­ac­ter - it is the only com­plete vil­lage in the coun­try that is a National Monument from one end to the other.

Volunteershoek in Winter

The town bene­fits from its prox­im­ity to Tiffindell Ski Resort in the winter and dur­ing sum­mer months has become renowned for fly-fishing. The road from Rhodes to Tiffindell is scenic and steep. You don’t need 4x4, but you do need con­trolled power, par­tic­u­larly where the cement strips zig­zag their way up the most extreme sec­tion. Approaching Tiffindell Ski Resort you will pass under the highest point in the Cape (3.001m above sea level). Known by local tribes as ‘Makhollo’ (Great Mother), the Europeans named this peak Ben McDhui after the moun­tain in Scotland and it is affec­tion­ately referred to as BenMac by local residents.

Carlisleshoek Pass –Tiffindell Ski Resort to Wartrail
Tiffindell Resort was estab­lished in 1993 to give South Africans an oppor­tun­ity to ski near their homes and oth­ers to ski in Africa. The care­fully selec­ted pos­i­tion of the resort, on the south facing slope, ensures that the snow lasts, extend­ing the time avail­able for snow ski­ing. Slopes cleared and groomed dur­ing sum­mer quickly trans­form to ski runs after even the light­est of snow­falls. After tra­vers­ing the high plat­eau, the Carlisleshoek Pass winds its way down to the farm­ing com­munity of Wartrail. The road is nar­row with some pre­cip­it­ous drop-offs, so do pause to check for oncom­ing vehicles com­ing up the pass as they have right of way. After the steep­est sec­tion, the road gives won­der­ful views of Halstone Krans and the val­ley farm­lands bey­ond. There are some inter­est­ing rock form­a­tions along this sec­tion, the most not­able of which is ‘Funnystone’ which lends its name to the farm opposite.

Lundean’s Nek

Lundean’s Nek –Wartrail to Telebridge Border Post with Lesotho
Wartrail is a moun­tain farm­ing com­munity steeped in tra­di­tion. Many of the farms are still inhab­ited by dir­ect des­cend­ants of the ori­ginal set­tlers to the area. The scenery is noth­ing short of spec­tac­u­lar. Lundean’s Nek con­nects this part of the Eastern Cape to the Lesotho bor­der at Telebridge. You may wish to stop in at ‘Woolys of Wartrail’ for a deli­cious cake, cup of cof­fee and to admire their emus!

You will pass by the remote Lundean’s Nek police sta­tion - whose primary roles are to pre­vent rust­lers tak­ing stolen stock across to Lesotho and to pre­vent smug­glers tak­ing green grass or dia­monds in the oppos­ite dir­ec­tion. Just bey­ond the police sta­tion the sum­mit of the pass provides fant­astic pan­or­amic views of the Maloti Mountains. As the road pro­gresses towards Telebridge the river to your right forms a nat­ural bor­der with Lesotho. This area was part of the former Transkei and you will pass many remote moun­tain vil­lages where tra­di­tional cul­tures and farm­ing prac­tices are still very much a way of life.

Joubert’s Pass – Lady Grey to Barkly East via the Witteberg
The third highest pass in South Africa, Joubert’s Pass tra­verses the Witteberg Mountains in a scenic loop. The road passes through beau­ti­ful farm­lands before rising up through the Lammergeier Nature Reserve. Each year extreme adven­ture racers run across these exposed peaks in the 100km Skyrun which ends at Tiffindell Ski Resort. As you des­cend into Lady Grey it is well worth stop­ping at the town dam; the wall is 25m high and this area is makes a scenic pic­nic stop. You can walk up a nat­ural stair­case to the top of the dam wall. The beau­ti­ful Dutch Reformed sand­stone church is a National Monument and each Easter is one of the loc­a­tions through­out the town used for a pas­sion play depict­ing the bib­lical story of the Resurrection of Christ.

Otto du Plessis Pass

Otto Du Plessis – Clifford to Tsolo
Whilst still on the tar road between Lady Grey and the Clifford turn-off it is pos­sible to see part of the unique rail­way link­ing Barkly East with Lady Grey to the north­w­est. Owing to the moun­tain­ous ter­rain, a sys­tem of eight ‘reverses’ was incor­por­ated into the line, which has a gradi­ent of 1 in 36,  one of only two such sys­tems in the world. The Class 19D steam loco­mot­ive that stands in Barkly East’s square is a reminder of the early days of rail transport.

From the Clifford turn-off the road ascents stead­ily through farm­land until reach­ing the sum­mit of Otto Du Plessis pass. This point has pan­or­amic views from the top of the escarp­ment over the Tsomo val­ley. It is reputed that on a clear day it is pos­sible to see the Indian Ocean. This may be a dubi­ous claim, but there is no doubt at all that the vis­tas are far reach­ing and spec­tac­u­lar. As the pass des­cends to Ida it winds through sand­stone gorges, forests, farm­lands and across rivers in a breath­tak­ing moun­tain wil­der­ness. This vari­ety of hab­itat means that Otto Du Plessis is one of the best bird­ing passes in the area, so keep your eyes open for moun­tain ‘spe­cials’ that include Drakensberg Rock-jumpers, Ground Woodpeckers and a vari­ety of siskins.

Barkly Pass

Barkly Pass – Elliot to Barkly East
Barkly Pass is the only tarred road on the 8 passes cir­cuit, but is still not to be under­es­tim­ated as it can be extremely slip­pery in wet or icy weather. The sand­stone but­tresses and rock form­a­tions are mag­ni­fi­cent. See if you can spot the tor­toise (or is it a snail?) at the top of the pass.

The area was ori­gin­ally inhab­ited by San Bushmen hunter-gatherers and is there­fore home to many fine examples of well pre­served rock and cave paint­ings. Barkly East is well known for its sheep farm­ing and for pro­du­cing some of the best wool and most tender lamb in South Africa. A lesser known ‘claim to fame’ is that Barkly East has recor­ded snow­fall dur­ing every cal­en­dar month, although not in the same year!

Bastervoetpad

Bastervoetpad – Barkly East / Elliot to Ugie
This spec­tac­u­larly scenic road links the top of Barkly Pass to Ugie and com­bines tech­nical driv­ing with stun­ning views. The road is rough in places, so high clear­ance vehicles are recom­men­ded and 4x4 in wet weather.

The pass is named after the Griquas who settled in the area for a while before decid­ing that the val­leys around Maclear and Ugie were a more com­fort­able hab­it­a­tion. The rock form­a­tions in the area are of interests to geo­lo­gists as there is evid­ence of gla­cial form­a­tion. The views at the top of the pass are breath­tak­ing and remin­is­cent of Valley of a Thousand Hills. One of my favour­ite memor­ies is stop­ping for a pic­nic at this point and com­ing eye­ball to eye­ball with two Cape Vultures also look­ing for lunch!

How to com­plete the 8 Passes Challenge
The eight passes can eas­ily be accessed from a cent­ral point such as Rosstrevor Guest Farm near Barkly East and linked to form a series of scenic day drives. Alternatively, the passes can be tackled as a loop over sev­eral days, stay­ing at a dif­fer­ent estab­lish­ment each night. In this remote moun­tain wil­der­ness it is advis­able to pre-book accom­mod­a­tion; Wild Mountain Adventures can help to plan your itin­er­ary, provide maps and recom­mend suit­able overnight stops along the route. They also have off-road 4x4 trails avail­able for those who want to test their tech­nical driv­ing skills further.

Contact Kate Nelson on Telephone +27 (0)45 971 9064.

Useful Links:
For more des­tin­a­tion inform­a­tion please see:
Barkly East Attractions
Barkly East Accommodation
Things to Do in Barkly East
Northern Ukhahlamba (Eastern Cape Drakensberg)