SOUTH AFRICAN 4X4 ADVENTURE

We leave our hotel after breakfast behind the wheel of our 4x4s heading Northeast to the incredible Cederberg region of the Western Cape Province. The area is noted for its stunning rock formations and San Rock Art. The San people were Africa’s first inhabitants.

The trip of approximately 250km will take us about five hours including a stop for lunch. We will tour through the beautiful towns of Wellington, Tulbagh and Ceres and the breath-taking Bains Kloof Pass before heading off the beaten track to stay overnight at the Kagga Kamma Nature Reserve. This hotel offers a unique bushveld experience with its rooms built into the sandstone hills, forming almost cave like structures.

Upon arrival we will have time to settle into our rooms before an evening sundowner trip in the resort’s ranger vehicles.

Returning to the resort, we will dine together outdoors in a ‘boma’ surrounded by sandstone monoliths with our food cooked on open fires under the incredible African sky. The remote location and rustic charm is sure to delight your senses and leave you in no doubt that we have firmly begun our African adventure…

In the late afternoon we will all meet and go for Sundowners at a location you are not likely to forget in a hurry, before returning to the lodge to have dinner under the stars.

Leaving the incredible Cederberg behind us, we will head east following an indirect route to Sutherland and the rustic but comfortable Rogge Cloof Guest Farm.

Today’s route will leave you in no doubt that you are in Africa. Our route takes us through the Great Karoo semi-desert region, traversing the black landscape of the Tankwa Karoo and crossing the Tankwa River into the Northern Cape Province.

The Karoo is almost twice the size of England and is about as remote as it gets anywhere on the planet, with endless landscapes of semi-desert and breath-taking mountains.

Don’t fear getting lost – Throughout the trip we will travel in convoy led by two experienced Tour Managers, and each vehicle will have a two-way radio and a Satellite Phone to remain in contact at all times.

After a journey of just over 300km we will arrive at the Biosphere Reserve of Rogge Cloof Guest Farm in the heart of the Karoo. There is a reason we have chosen this place for you!

You will see a night sky that you may never encounter anywhere else on earth (assuming the weather plays ball). Just up the road from our accommodation is the Southern African Large Telescope, a 10-metre class optical telescope used for spectroscopy. Its remote location and less than 75mm of rain a year make it the perfect location for a giant telescope and of course for us too!!

Rogge Cloof has roaming game and Cheetah. To give you a sense of scale, the lodge we are staying at is 12km from the main entrance, so we will have our own game drive on the way to our accommodation on well-maintained gravel roads.

Rogge Cloof operates on solar power and appliances such as hairdryers cannot be supported. But you will be able to charge mobile phones, run laptops, etc.

Rooiberg is situated on 14, 000 hectares of fynbos and succulent Karoo. Fynbos is a tiny belt of shrub and heatherland type vegetation that can only be found in the Cape regions of South Africa. It is so unique and important it is listed as one of the six flora kingdoms.

En route, we will stop in the town of Calitzdorp for lunch and a tour of a local Wine Estate.

This evening we will dine in Rooiberg’s beautiful, homely thatched restaurant, sampling traditional South African cuisine and choosing from a selection of fabulous wines and ports!

Today we will do some off-road driving over several of the most spectacular passes you are ever likely to drive. We will leave Rooiberg Lodge and head southeast towards our destination for the next two days, the Turbine Boutique Hotel and Spa, in the heart of the sleepy, beautiful lagoon town of Knysna (pronounced Ni-sna).

Our journey will take us over the Rooiberg Pass followed by the Swartberg Pass road leading to Knysna.

The passes we will drive are almost untouched tracks of the original Voortrekker settlers in South Africa, who journeyed many arduous routes as they sought a life of riches ahead of them in the north of the country.

But to get there, they had to find routes over the coastal escarpment and onto the highlands. An arduous journey that claimed the lives of many people and livestock. This will be a first-hand experience of seeing just what they must have gone through. The agony of traversing such arduous landscapes and yet also the sheer beauty of these breath-taking lands. This is a 25km drive on single track roads, and the most ‘technical’ dirt roads we will drive all tour.

Arriving into Knysna, we will check into The Turbine Hotel & Spa for two nights.

We have a lengthy journey of 390km which will take us over 5 hours, but again through some of South Africa’s most impressive scenery and mostly on tarmac. We will head west and onto the spine of the Langeberg escarpment then through the towns of Barrydale and Montagu, before heading south to the fantastic town of Franschhoek, the wine capital of South Africa for a slight change of pace and scenery.

Lunch will be taken at the appropriately named Diesel and Crème Bistro in Barrydale – a fascinating village with lots to see and do!
Then it’s on to Mont Rochelle for an evening of great hospitality in what is truly one of the most stunning regions of South Africa.

As we will only have arrived into Franschhoek late afternoon on the previous day, today you have the opportunity to explore our wonderful hotel or, after breakfast, venture out into Franschhoek to explore this interesting town. There will be plenty of time to visit the many interesting shops and have lunch at one of the eateries in town. We will meet up and leave the hotel together at 14:00 and drive to Cape Town for our final evening together back at the Mount Nelson hotel where our adventure began.