Grand Tour
The Cape Loop
Five days over the Western Cape’s passes, from the winelands to the Garden Route.
The Western Cape puts a wine valley, a semi-desert and a forested coast within a day’s drive of each other, joined by a run of mountain passes, three of them from the nineteenth century. This loop crosses the Franschhoek into the Klein Karoo, follows Route 62 to Oudtshoorn, climbs Thomas Bain’s gravel Swartberg Pass, then drops over the Outeniqua to the Garden Route lakes and finishes on Prince Alfred’s Pass, the longest publicly accessible mountain pass in the country.
Over the Franschhoek
Overnight: MontaguFrom Cape Town to the winelands at Franschhoek and over the Franschhoek Pass, South Africa’s first properly engineered mountain road, then east to Montagu at the start of Route 62.
Route 62
Overnight: OudtshoornRoute 62 across the Klein Karoo: Barrydale, Ladismith, the 39 bends of the Huisrivier Pass and Calitzdorp, to Oudtshoorn.
The Swartberg
Overnight: OudtshoornThomas Bain’s 1888 gravel pass over the Swartberg to Prince Albert, held up by dry-stone walls, and back over it in the afternoon. It closes after rain or snow, so check before you go.
Outeniqua and the lakes
Overnight: KnysnaOver the Outeniqua Pass to George, then the Garden Route’s lake district on the N2 through Wilderness and Sedgefield to Knysna.
Prince Alfred’s Pass
Overnight: GeorgeInland from Knysna on Prince Alfred’s Pass, Bain’s 1867 gravel road through forest and fynbos to Avontuur in the Klein Karoo, then back to George.
