Garden Route & Route 62, Back Country Roads - PART 1 - CAPE TOWN to ADDO ELEPHANT PARK

Hi, I'm Craig Marshall, owner of MSA Travel Africa. In these difficult times of COVID and travel changing globally and shifting more towards local travel and local self-drive travel, we're producing a series of route books called Backcountry Southern Africa that help you discover the hidden secrets of South Africa and the garden route and maximize your travel time. In this video, we'll take you on a journey to various parts of different routes and showcase some of the hidden secrets, the twisted mountain passes, incredible scenery and various other places that you must see if traveling the garden route of South Africa. Like and share this video and subscribe to our channel if you want to keep up with our travels and discover the hidden secrets with us. Hi, I'm Kirsten Fugard, Accommodation Manager for MSA Travel Africa. Join Craig and I as we travel around the garden route and the Route 62, showcasing the best accommodation and dining experiences that this region has to offer. Having experienced these places together and personally, we can highly and confidently recommend them to you. Come and travel with us. So how do we use these route books? Well, there's the printed route book, there's a downloadable GPX track for your GPS and there's the Google Maps links that you can use on your mobile phone or tablet. Plus, in addition, if you check the links in the video below, you will be able to download the Tracks for Africa guide app, which will also assist you to find camping sites, alternative accommodation, places to eat, fuel and everything right on your fingertips on your mobile phone. The other thing about using these route books is that we will give you the correct route for the correct experience that you have. Whether you're driving a 4x4 SUV or motorcycle, you don't want to end up on a route that's too technically difficult for you because you've done your planning incorrectly. So we've categorized the routes into easy, intermediate and difficult and the route book is in three different colors. The green is the easy route, blue is intermediate and red is for the more advanced 4x4 drivers and motorcyclists. Places like Baviaanskloof, Kampkaskloof, otherwise known as Die Helle or Atterkwasskloof. These areas are very technical riding and quite dangerous if you're an intermediate rider. So it's very important in your route planning that you ride the correct route for your experience and for the vehicle days by motorcycle to film and highlight some of the incredible hidden locations, the accommodation and cuisine and the network of back gravel roads and mountain passes featured in the route book. All three routes start in Cape Town and visit Cape Agalus on the first day. A three and a half to five hour journey through the backcountry roads of the Overberg and along the rugged Cape coastlines. Route 1, being Altar, ends the day at Mermaid Guesthouse in Strais Bay after visiting the southernmost tip of Africa and the Maishu Maru shipwreck. For those doing routes two and three and have the ability and suitable vehicle to drive or ride on gravel roads, well overnight at the enchanting De Hoop Nature Reserve. The sought-after De Hoop collection in the Overberg region offers a nature-loving traveler a one-stop accommodation experience amidst vast rhinoster felt, abundant in breathtaking fauna and flora. A short drive from the accommodation takes one to the magnificent coastline and bright white rolling sand dunes in The high dunes offer the perfect vantage point for southern right whale watching. From exceptionally well-maintained campsites, self-catering rondavels and chalets, the De Hoop collection caters to all accommodation preferences and budgets. The on-site restaurant provides delectable breakfasts, lunches and dinners for those wishing to relax in a spacious dining area overlooking the beautiful rolling lawns and De Hoop clay. From sunrise to sunset, the De Hoop collection offers an inviting activity for all outdoor enthusiasts. These include wildlife and birdlife watching, swimming, mountain biking and day hikes. Relax, unwind and savor the peace and quiet of this magical property set in an unspoiled environment. The next section of our journey took us on the second day of route three from De Hoop heading east along the gravel roads across the famous Malchus pontoon. Unfortunately at the time of shooting this documentary, the new motorized Malchus pontoon had been closed for several months. It never even got approved by the South African Maritime Safety Association. So now the pontoon has been closed again and nobody can get through. Now the way around is incredibly long. You have to go all the way up to Swellendam and then right the way around. Whereas from here you can cut diagonally through and continue to follow the coastal gravel roads. It was announced on social media recently that the new pontoon is now open as of the 25th of March 2021. We continue through the Vak mountains of Heidelberg via Geestmanshoek Pass ox wagon trail. So when it comes to Vak 20 riding there's a very few that can come close to where we are right now and that is inside Geestmanshoek Pass. You will not be able to get through here in a normal vehicle. You will probably need a 4x4 or an adventure motorcycle. It is on our red route. It is on route number three and it's definitely not something that normal vehicles or inexperienced motorcyclists would be able to do. After passing through Geestmanshoek and traversing the Langeberg mountain range, we enter the Atterquast grove, home of the well-known Bonnedale holiday farm, a firm flavored with off-road bikers and weekend come through here was Isaac Schreiber. He was sent down by Simon van der Stel to look for the gold of the Atterquast. He came through and was shown a route by the Khorikko Kwekwe through these mountains. It was basically an elephant migration route. Elephants can only walk in a certain gradient, so it was easy for the wagons to get through. He came through with 12 wagons. When was that? What year was that? 1689. Wow. And thereafter it became the main road to the north for 180 years. It was a very well-used route, this whole tollhouse on Bonnedale, which they recorded 4,285 Australians pass through there in 1845. We're at Bonnedale holiday farm just outside of Mossel Bay, completely off the beaten track in the most beautiful, beautiful surroundings. You are honestly sitting in a space where nature is right in your face. Behind me is a gorgeous historical farmhouse, and in the farmhouse are three B&B rooms, two of which are en suite. When one arrives here, the expectation should not be for four-star or five-star accommodation, rather comfortable, clean accommodation, and just a place to really revel in nature. These are the five military tents right on the river's edge. Great for our facilities, wonderful for big groups. Each of them sleeps 10 people, so you can have as many as 50 people in this whole area. And there's a fabulous larpa right on the water's edge. Self-catching accommodation is available in a large 16-sleeper chalet with its own private swimming pool, as well as in equipped caravans. Discover bushman paintings in the caves, enjoy a cup of naturally grown honeybush tea, and swim in crystal clear rock pools or the main Kemsar Dam. After leaving Bonnedale farm and traversing the gravel roads back to the R328, be sure to stop at the delightful Burki Bistro in Rotebos. The wood-fired Thin Bez pizzas are exceptional, with unexpected topping combinations. The route out of the Attiquas Clurf takes us across the R328 and through a network of gravel roads in the Mussel Bay Agricultural and Dairy Farm region, continuing through George, joining a short section of the old Seven Passes route down onto the ever-spectacular Wilderness Coastline. Stay true to that fire in your heart and your soul, don't drench your desire in what you can't control. We fly, we fly, try so hard to get there and we might, we might, be lost but not forever. There's things in life you simply need to know, but sun and rain and trust and letting go, it takes a bit of suffering, sleepless nights and wandering, before you make it safely to the end. I'm sitting on the veranda of the Bird Haven Chalet at Wilderness Bush Camp in Wilderness on the Garden Route. We woke up to the most phenomenal sunrises this morning. Obviously, we had our cameras out and we were shooting time lapses. The cottage itself is two-bedroom, beautifully decorated, lovely linen, comfortable beds, stylishly decorated, a kitchen that is fully equipped, so if you do decide to self-cater, it has everything that you need. Important to note is when you are approaching Wilderness Bush Camp is the drive up to the facility is extremely steep. There's a very steep, curvy driveway and if you're an inexperienced rider you might have a problem in those sharp corners. Do be aware of that, whether you're in a vehicle or on a motorcycle, you need to be able to manoeuvre yourself up that driveway adequately, but it certainly is worth it at the end of the day. It's absolutely beautiful here, it's our first visit and we cannot wait to come back. It's just comfortable home away from home accommodation. With some wet weather approaching, we headed away from the coast into the historical Montague Pass, featured on Route 3, Day 5, the Kamanasi loop back to Utenequa Mountain Lodge in Prince Alfred Pass. Opened in 1848, it was the only passage between George and Oudtshoorn. This historical route is the oldest unaltered pass still in use in South Africa. Nowadays it's probably one of the most used passes on the garden route. Accessible by most vehicles, the easy gravel pass is a spectacle not to be missed. The old tollhase serves as a coffee and pancake shop and is filled with memorabilia from a bygone era. It's an absolutely spectacular gravel pass, also back from the 1800s and it's still in great condition, you can drive it even in a normal car. Most adventure motorcycles will get up here, in fact you could probably do it on a road bike but I wouldn't really test that. In the background there, high up on the ledges, is the current Utenequa Pass which is the main common pass between George and Oudtshoorn. We've got it on Route 3 on Day 5, it's a loop through the Kamanasi and down this pass and back through George and back through the seven passes and up through the Forest of Niza. So this is the old historical railway bridge in the Montague Pass. It's been several hundred years since trains have gone overhead here but the bridge still remains and although it's full of graffiti, it's still an exceptionally beautiful bridge by all means and very well photographed. Most of the bikers, most people that come past here in cars and SUVs and 4x4s, everybody stops to shoot pictures of this classic old bridge. One of our favorite sections of the garden route has to be the mystical Old Cape Road in Komsepat, winding its way through the indigenous Nizana forest, a region of over 3,100 square kilometers of untouched dense natural forest, estimated at over 2,000 years old. The route is rich in history and evidence of old elephant paths still remain today. The existence of the Nizana elephants is often considered a myth, however as recently as 2019, photographs from hidden camera traps have proven the tales to be true. It's on paths like this behind me that we can see now deep inside the Nizana forest where the legendary Nizana elephants are moving apparently. So when they find fresh dung and when they find pictures of the elephants on the camera traps, then they know they're in this area. But having a look down at the forest where we were just now from the top of the Spitzkop viewpoint, there's hundreds of kilometers of incredibly dense forest just like this and there's no way you'd find an elephant. I mean we've been in forests where elephants are 20 meters away and you still can't see them and they move very, very quietly. So it's really incredible to think that there's still elephants living in these forests. There is perhaps only one female remaining, but in other areas fresh dung has been found and tests confirm its DNA to be male. After joining the R339 from Nizana, the well-known Prince Alfred Pass, we weave our way through the twisted gravel road to the overnight stop at Otiniqua Mountain Lodge in De Vlucht, one of my personal favorites. And for nature lovers, this location is a highlight. We're at the very beautiful Otiniqua Mountain Lodge and we're just on our way back to our chalet after a fabulously refreshing swim in the rock pools. I'm here with Ingo Veneman. He is the owner of Otiniqua Mountain Lodge which is situated in De Vlucht in the Prince Alfred's Pass. Ingo, tell us about the farm and tell us about this incredible location. It's been built by Thomas Bain in 1860 to 1865. It was housed originally as a tourist stop, actually, for lawyers and doctors who traveled from Nizana to Uniondale. One day, horse cart ride on the pass, the Prince Alfred's Pass. This was the halfway house. They slept in this very house that you slept in last night and the next day they would proceed to Uniondale with fresh horses. So, that's part of the history of that. It's built by Thomas Bain while he was building the pass and the reason for the pass was to connect wood producing area Nizana with the admin area of then British South Africa which was the headquarters for Uniondale. And that was in which year? That was in the 1800s, right? 1860 to 1865. So, the watermill that we looked at earlier, how old is that watermill? That watermill is roughly, what is it? It was built 1860. So, 1860 the waterwheel was brought in the 1870s in one piece all the way from Liverpool and brought here by Volkswagen. Set on the scenic Prince Alfred's Pass, Otiniqua Mountain Lodge is a mere 55 kilometers from Klettenburg Bay in Nizana. This self-catering property offers the traveler a welcome break from city life in an off-the-grid tranquil location. The four six-sleeper lodges provide comfortable, attractively furnished accommodation in an unspoiled mountain setting. Giselle, thank you so much for having Craig and I again. It's always such a pleasure to be here in your beautiful space. Please tell us a little bit more about the retreats that you've had here in the past. I believe it's quite a new initiative and where you hope to go to in terms of future retreats. Hi Kirsten, thank you for being here. It's lovely to have you. Yes, the retreats are fairly new to us. We've had a couple of very successful retreats here. We've had a 10-day women's retreat and a five-day women's retreat. Women that have come from all over the world. It is really a beautiful experience and it's so remote and so peaceful and so private that you find that with that type of work. It's so spiritual that the quiet here really resonates with these people to find that peace that they need coming out of the cities and you just need that break away and that reset. So if you're like me and you're a lover of nature and the outdoors, I mean part of all these routes that we do, sure it is motorcycling and it's biking and it's beer drinking and it's everything else that you want it to be. But for us, for myself and Kirsten, we're more nature lovers and when we get to a new destination it's not so much about the beer and the braai and falling asleep. For us it's about discovering new locations, taking a hiking path, walking up the riverbeds and going and swimming in an ice-cold rock pool, then coming back and having a beer. So in all of these locations we're going to take you to, there's so many different things you can do, so many different hikes and adventure activities. It's really about discovering what else there really is out there, not just about the gravel roads and about the bike you're riding and about how technical it was. That's for the fireplace. For us it's about getting to a new location, discovering something new. A few minutes ago we disturbed a massive eland and unfortunately I wasn't able to switch the camera on in time to capture it and this was a one-horned eland that I had filmed in our camp a few nights ago and we just walked on this path to the rock pools now and it was right in front of us, about five meters away. Those kinds of experiences you're only likely to get if you go exploring, so part of what we do is we explore. Wherever we go we explore new places, we explore mountains and rock pools and forests and pretty much anything we can find. It's part of the adventure. We left the splendor of Otonikwa Mountain Lodge and headed up the Prince Alfred Pass onto the Route 62. After a quick coffee stop at the Old Clip Hotel on the Western Cape-Eastern Cape border, we traveled further east to Karereido Pass, then backtracked a short distance to the Storms River Village in the heart of the Titsikama Forests. Hey Andre, how's it going man? Good and you Craig? Cool. Welcome. So you know, you and I have got a long history of segways in this village and you've got a long history of the business in this village. Back in 2012, I remember we started segways in the village. A couple of hours and a couple of yours and you grew it from there and you've got 55 segways now? Absolutely, we've got 55 running segways that we can do tours with. That means we can take any size group, we can take tour buses, we can turn a tour bus over in an hour. What's the biggest amount of people you put in one group? We try to keep the group smaller, we add more guides, so we try to keep it six, seven people per guide and when it's a big group we just split it up in little parts. So now to continue with the history, after the segway business, then you guys bought the backpack, your wife Michelle and yourself bought the Titsikama backpackers in the village and you ran that for several years and now you guys have bought the village lodge where we're staying now. You've got quite a nice dynasty going on in the village here. We started with only seven segways, we grew the fleet up to where it was a suitable amount and then we bought the Titsikama backpackers which is a bit different backpackers than your average backpackers. We're very family orientated, it's safe, it's friendly, it's clean, all the beds are king-size beds and from that little empire we started just adding on to the business, adding on to the business and eventually we bought the village lodge four years ago and we added four more rooms, it's now a 10-bedroom lodge. So you're now going to go for a ride down through the town now and deep into Titsikama Forest. village started out as a hunting lodge in the late 1800s for the gentry who travelled on horseback from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth for hunting excursions in the nearby Titsikama Forest. Today this pristine family-oriented property set in a beautifully manicured garden offers comfortable accommodation in the way of eight family and two double rooms. Each uniquely named ensuite room boasts pretty decor and comfortable bedding with the addition of fresh flowers and home-baked biscuits. Breakfast is a hearty affair and includes fresh fruit, yogurt, muesli muffins and an ample hot breakfast. Stroll into the village and visit one of the many restaurants for lunch or dinner directly on your doorstep. The extra day in Storms River village gave us the opportunity to travel a short distance, about 14 kilometers drive, down to the picturesque Storms River mouth and take the magnificent suspension bridge bike. Leaving Storms River we travelled east along the old R102 back road adjacent to the N2 highway. We continue all the way through Humansdorf, Jeffreys Bay and Newton Hague then up to Elephant House a few kilometers from the Addo Elephant National Park for our overnight stop. We've arrived at Elephant House in Addo in the Eastern Cape and just offloaded our luggage into one of the beautiful beautiful stable cottages. There are six of these units all set on this incredible green rolling lawn with this wonderful swimming pool, deck chairs, just an absolute sanctuary in this part of the world. Two of them are family units that sleep four, the balance of them sleep two people. There's an incredible amount of attention to detail in the way of the decor, the beautiful keelum rugs, this is really self-catering, up-market accommodation for the more discerning traveler. There are also eight ensuite rooms in the main house for those people just wanting an overnight experience. Beautiful property, really highly recommended and we are certainly going to come back in a private capacity and we're going to enjoy this place for a few days longer. It's best to allocate yourself a full day to visit and self-drive in Addo Elephant National Park but if you're on a motorcycle then safari vehicles are available from Elephant House or directly within sand parks inside the National herds of elephants and other big game it's a photographer's paradise.