Home / Bike Rides / Karoo Bike Ride - Oct 2012 275
- Beautiful NG Church in Sutherland
- Gravel side roads in Sutherland only two blocks to the open veld
- Sutherland's Police Station and Magistrate's Court
- Sutherland's only tar road
- Wind pumps in gardens at Sutherland
- Kosmos guesthouse where we stayed in Sutherland
- Old English Blockhouse guarding a railway bridge from Anglo-Boer War around 1901 (skew angles are my cameras wide angle view)
- Karoo landscape
- Karoo landscape near Prince Albert
- Chantel could not find her wallet with R600 after we left The Hell... but she picked up this 1985 10c coin in the veld
- Road out of Prince Albert
- This seemed a bit of a rip off in Prince Albert... well over a half hour and R36 each (and the shop was not busy)
- I Love the Karoo!
- No Fracking Signs at Prince Albert
- No Fracking signs in Prince Albert on the trees
- Swartberg Pass was closed on the Prince Albert side when we exited the pass
- Bike looking decidely more dirty
- Swartberg Pass mountains rocks
- Swartberg Pass
- Old jail ruins lower down on the Swartberg Pass
- Majestic Swartberg Mountains and the pass snaking down the mountain
- Tight rurns on Swartberg Pass
- Just over top of Swartberg Pass about to descend down towards Prince Albert
- Top of Swartberg Pass
- Stopped by the Platberg Circle Route sign
- Final stretch of road out of The Hell... may look more levl but my biggest worry was the slippery clay and much of it was ridden in 1st gear and took nearly 4 hours to get out
- Found the Swartberg Pass geocache
- Better view of the slippery clay
- Can see the wet slippery clay on the tyres... this is on a better stretch out of The Hell
- Flooded river with Chantel wading across to check depth and size of rocks... came up to over her knees at some point with medium size boulders which need to be avoided
- Road out of The Hell.... drizzling and I'm worried that the wet rocks in the road surface will be slippery (also started the video here which will be uploaded later)
- Lovely old stove
- Kitchen in house at The Hell
- Drinks by the fire
- 3 Course supper from the restaurant with the sparkling wine we brought with
- Road through The Hell
- Us in The Hell
- Old GPO poles made in London
- Close up view of old GPO phone pole from 1950's
- Old cast iron poles for phone lines
- Typical empty caravan stand... very neat and tidy
- Ablution block for caravan stands
- Caravan Hettie for accommodation.... aparently towed in with a 4x4
- Entrance to caravan stands
- Oupa Piet Mostert's House
- Donkey's used for the 4 day trail
- Pietjie and Hester Swanepoel's House
- Road to Hell....
- Peacock
- McCormick-Deering
- Old machinery
- More solar panels
- Old ox wagon
- Remains of an old ox wagon
- Another view of the restaurant and shop
- Old car
- Restaurant and shop in The Hell
- Entrance to the shop
- Old abandoned car
- Old abandoned car
- Sign that greets you before reaching the shop
- Going for a walk along The Hell Valley
- Stappies Cordier House History
- Solar power for the houses in the Nature Reserve
- View out of the bathroom
- Bathroom with disabled facilities
- Stappies Cordier House where we stayed in The Hell
- Entrance to Nature Reserve and Gamkaskloof Valley known as The Hell
- Narrow road for the final descent
- Final descent into Die Hel... you can see the trecherous turns and steep winding narrow road
- Road towards Die Hel
- Chantel's gloves giving off die
- Better part of the road into Die Hel... still reasonably dry so no slippery clay
- Sign: Dangerous road ahead for 48km Use at own Risk!
- Just turned off onto road into Gamkaskloof (Die Hel) and visibility a bit better
- Finding the geocache on the way up Swartberg Pass
- Raining and low cloud over Swartberg Pass past Oudtshoorn... visibility eventually dropped to 20 metres and we had to crawl along
- Filling up in Oudtshoorn with Trunell's Supermarket in the background
- House in Oudtshoorn
- Brunch at Nostalgie in Oudtshoorn