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By Taryn McDonald

Seweweekspoort is where the Karoo captured my heart. Some describe it as the most beautiful 17 km stretch of road in South Africa. It lies within the Swartberg nature reserve and spans across both the little and central Karoo.

I hadn’t made any specific plans for the last week of my month of soloing, so after flipping through Jacque Marais’ “Moer and Gone Places” and “Top Trails” I decided to get off the grid and check out Seweweekspoort.

The route starts in a little mission town, Amalienstein. I suggest parking at the Amaliestein Kontrei (GPS coordinates: -33.484004, 21.459823). From here, there are two options for starting the trail. The first is to head east from the Kontrei and take the first left out of Amalienstein towards the R62, across the R62 and head straight up the gravel road, which vehicles use to get to Seweweekspoort. The second is to cycle west down the gravel road from Amalienstein Kontrei, the road will curve to the right towards the R62 and then cross over it. Follow this route north until it intersects the road (mentioned in option 1). 

This is definitely the more fun off-road route to get to the poort, but I also ended up with about 15 giant thorns in my tyres. I pulled out a few but when it took a long time for the slime to kick in, I decided to leave the rest. 

The route climbs very gently. You’ll barely notice it because you’ll be staring up at the giant masses of rock reaching up towards the sky. As you move forward, the poort closes behind you with its twists and turns, until eventually all you see is a little stretch of road ahead and behind and mountains all around. And all you hear is the crunching of gravel beneath. 

In the poort specifically, the road climbs approximately 479 m (532m to 1011m ASL) over 17 km. For more information on the history of the pass: Click Here. On the western side of the poort you will see Seweweekspoort Peak towering above the rest. At 2325 m, this is the highest peak in the Western Cape. I made a mental note to come back to climb it one day.

The poort crosses the Seweweekspoort River more than twenty times and there are beautiful spots to stop for a snack.

Continue past the poort until the 22 km mark where you will find a T-juction, with Laingburg to your left and Bosch Luys Kloof pass to your right. Turn around here and head back for the ride of your life, enjoying the views of the poort from the opposite direction…approximately 20 km of downhill bliss with very little pedaling.

On the way down I felt a gentle mist spraying me sporadically. Could it be a drizzle on a ferociously hot day? Alas, it was not. A thorn had dislodged itself from my tubeless tyre and instead of sealing the hole, the slime was being released, going round and round up into the air and raining down on me. Carrying a hand-pump has proven to be essential on these solo trips! I stopped twice to pump it up really hard and that seemed to do the job.

There is only one place to sleep over at inside the poort. It’s called Aristata and it is located near the middle. 

At the top near the T-juntion you will find Op-die-Plaas camping and Zandrivier Self-catering cottages. I chose to treat myself to a stay at Bosch Luys Kloof Private Nature reserve, which is located 12 km east of the top of the poort at the end of Bosch Luys Kloof Pass. I highly recommend it. The food is amazing, there are numerous trails for running and hiking, you can cycle to Gamkapoort dam (and canoe on the dam when the water levels are high), and you can even cycle the To-Hell-and-Back MTB route which takes you up to the famous Die Leer, which forms part of the Freedom Ride route out of Die Hel.

Kyle Jameson and his team went on a quest to explore new terrain for untouched mountain bike lines. While on the hunt they uncovered some epic new terrain in Namibia which is definitely not your typical riding destination. They rode their bikes around the oasis known as Goanikontes in the Naukluft desert and ended up on the almost unrideable sand dunes of the skeleton coast.

By Diane Shearer

The Parrot Bebop 2 drone was used to capture South Africa's incredible wilderness in an aerial video. Taking you on a journey from travelling on a train, to surfing, watching the sun set on Table mountains and game viewing. Everything great about South Africa is captured in a 3 minute video. 

By Diane Shearer

Drones have become very popular lately but there is one thing missing, people can't ride in them.

Ehang CEO, Huazhi Hu began designing the one-seater electric drone a couple of years ago, after two of his pilot friends were killed in plane crashes. The one-seater drone has a carbon fiber/epoxy composite body, an aerial aluminum alloy frame, and eight motors putting out 142 hp/106 kW to eight propellers that are located on the top and bottom of one of four arms. Those arms can fold up when the drone is parked on the ground, allowing it to take up less space.


The main idea of the one-seater drone is so that people can have a form of short-to-medium-distance personal air transport that didn't require them to have a pilot's license. Its aim is to be the smallest, safest and most eco-friendly low altitude autonomous aerial vehicle. Ehang explains that “Users will simply get in, power it up, select their destination using a 12-inch touchscreen tablet display, then press the "take-off" button. The drone's automated flight systems will take over from there, managing tasks such as communication with air traffic control and other aircraft, obstacle avoidance, and navigation – it will always choose the fastest yet safest route between its present location and its destination. Failsafe systems will reportedly take over in the event of malfunctions, plus passengers can get the drone to stop and hover in place if needed.”




The world’s first autonomous aerial vehicle is already fully functional, with a worldwide series of demo flights scheduled to begin soon. It is said to be commercially available later this year, priced somewhere between US$200,000 and $300,000.

By Cam "Cambo" Kernes

Last Sunday, Warrick and I were very excited to join Terence Vrugtman and his girlfriend Ash as well as a great couple, Jack and Michelle from Trail Lab to go kloofing in Magaliesburg at a place known as Grootkloof.

To make the +-1.5hour drive from Johannesburg to the start of the hike at Grootkloof more interesting, Warrick decided to give his new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon its first off-road experience up the very rocky and worn away Breedts Nek Road (also a very popular training ascent/descent for mountain bikers in the area). This drive just added to the adventure we were about to embark on.

The hike to Grootkloof was about 3km in total including a stop at an awesome viewpoint which was the first glimpse we got of the kloof we would be descending into.

Just as we were about to enter the kloof we had a black Labrador dog join us. As we didn’t want the dog to follow us, we went back along the path to check for the dogs owners but there was no one around and unfortunately the dog didn’t have any form of identification on it.

We started to make our way down the rocky boulders and the dog just wanted to follow us despite all our efforts to tell it to go home. So we ended up making our way down the kloof by rock hopping and wading through crystal clear pools with a black Labrador following us. We eventually came across another group of people that were resting in the kloof and the dog decided to stay with them.
We eventually got to a section where you have to abseil down a +-14meter drop. Although I have been abseiling when I was a lot younger I was very nervous to do this again after so many years.

Whilst Terence and Ash sorted out all the ropes to enable us all to abseil down, the group of people we passed earlier in the kloof caught up to us joined by the adventurous Labrador. At this point everyone knew that we were going to have to make a plan to rescue this Labrador out of the kloof. As the dog had already come down so far into the kloof it would be impossible for it to go back up again so the only option would be to abseil it down and continue making its way out the kloof with the group.

After much deliberation it was decided that it would be best to put two harnesses on the dog to abseil it down. Ash, Michelle and two of the other groups’ members had already abseiled down and were there to assist with the dog coming down. The Labrador definitely seemed a bit apprehensive and as he was lowered down he tried to hold onto the rock with his paws. Once the dog was in the free abseiling zone of this descent he was lowered quickly and safely into the pool below to everyone’s delight. The dog definitely seemed to be very happy and chuffed with itself almost as if he had done this before. The other group of people then continued on their journey down the kloof with the dog as we still had four people to abseil down including myself.

At the start of the abseil I was terrified as the rock face is slightly slanted and throws you off to the side but as soon as I widened my legs and leaned back I instantly felt more secure and in control of what I was doing. This abseil had a short drop to the first plateau and then you had to make your way to the next ledge of the descent which ended up being the part I enjoyed the most as you got to a point that you could free abseil into the rock pool below with a beautiful waterfall in view.

Once we had all successfully abseiled, we all grabbed a quick bite to eat whilst also trying to warm up in the sun. It is really amazing how freezing cold you can get in a kloof even on a hot day like it was where the temperatures were around 35 degrees outside.

The rest of our adventure down Grootkloof included more rock hopping and climbing, bum sliding into rock pools and just taking in the beauty of this incredible place.

All in all this was definitely one of my favourite adventures to date and I cannot wait to go kloofing again in the future.

See Camilla's blog at Cambo Adventures