The Karoo Passes Loop: Southern Mountains & Swartberg Valleys
A five-day mountain pass expedition, starting and ending in Cape Town, charting approximately 1,300 kilometres of the Western Cape's most challenging unpaved ridges, featuring the legendary gravel switchbacks of the Swartberg Pass and the isolated descent into Gamkaskloof (Die Hel).
This five-day itinerary prioritises high-elevation unpaved passes, demanding steady technical competence across loose shale, steep gradients, and rugged valley floors. The riding focuses heavily on the Western Cape's premier dirt tracks, testing throttle control and line selection through tight mountain switchbacks and open gravel plains. Navigating these environments requires continuous mechanical sympathy and sharp concentration, making it a highly rewarding route for riders seeking authentic, technical dirt surfaces.
Tackling this circuit delivers a profound sense of isolation as the route breaks away from the coast to conquer passes widely considered legendary within the global adventure motorcycling community. By tracing historic, hand-packed stone walls and deep, dead-end valley descents, riders experience the true, rugged scale of the inland escarpment. The tour offers a fast-paced, immersive transition into remote backcountry before returning across the primary mountain barrier of the Cape Fold Belt.
Tour Highlights
Swartberg Pass: Conquer the absolute crown jewel of South African unpaved passes, climbing to 1,583 metres on tight, stone-walled switchbacks.
Gamkaskloof (Die Hel): Descend the technical, dead-end switchbacks of a steep route globally renowned among adventure riders for its extreme isolation and dramatic topography.
Seweweekspoort: Trace the towering, vertical rock faces of this dramatic, water-carved mountain corridor.
Bainskloof & Du Toitskloof Pass: Ride the historic, sweeping mountain asphalt carved directly into the Cape's dramatic rock faces.
Huisrivier Pass: Corner through the sweeping, multi-lane engineered asphalt switchbacks of the Little Karoo.
Route
The journey exits Cape Town heading northeast to ascend the narrow, historic stone walls of Bainskloof Pass. The route continues through Mitchells Pass before tracking into the vast, arid expanses of the Great Karoo, concluding the opening leg at the historic rail siding of Matjiesfontein. From here, riders drop south of the national highway to cross the sweeping, low-traffic gravel plains that line the base of the Swartberg range, arriving at the oasis town of Prince Albert.
The mid-section of the expedition tackles the region's most demanding and legendary terrain, starting with a steep out-and-back technical descent down the isolated single-track of Gamkaskloof. After climbing back out of the valley, riders cross the rugged summit of the Swartberg Pass, descending through Schoemanspoort and Rust en Vrede to reach the valley town of De Rust.
Turning west, the route charts an intensive milestone leg that crosses 15 distinct mountain passes through the Little Karoo foothills via Dysseldorp and De Hoop. Riders scale Huis se Hoogte, Kruisrivier, Huisrivier passes and more, before looping north to navigate the towering sandstone walls of Seweweekspoort, eventually tracking south into Montagu. The final leg returns to Cape Town by carving past the sheer rock faces of the Du Toitskloof Pass to drop back into the city.