Day 1 — Citrusdal (15 October 2027)

We all make our way to Citrusdal at the foot of the Cederberg. Join me at The Baths, the natural hot springs just outside town, for our first night — a soak in the warm mineral pools is a good way to start a week of mountain passes.

Overnight: The Baths, Citrusdal · Ablutions: Hot showers and flush toilets

Day 2 — Over the Bokkeveld to Wellington

After breakfast we leave the citrus valley on the Elandskloof Pass, an old 18th-century sheep-trekking route, and climb on to the much steeper Middelberg Pass, with short sections as steep as 1:5, across a high plateau of citrus orchards and rooibos plantations. First coffee is usually at the top of a pass. The Buffelshoek Pass squeezes 30 bends into just over five kilometres before we drop down the Gydo Pass into the orchards of Prince Alfred Hamlet. Gydo was built by Andrew Geddes Bain in 1848 — the name is said to mean “steep passage” in the old Khoi language. From Ceres we take Michell’s Pass, Bain senior’s masterpiece of the time, which cut some 150 km off the old route into the Bokkeveld; his original dry-stone walling can still be seen near the Old Toll House. Then via Tulbagh and the Nuwekloof — the old Roodezand route, rebuilt by Thomas Bain in 1859–60 — before we camp near Wellington, among the olive and wine farms.

Distance: ~245km · Ablutions: Hot showers and flush toilets

Day 3 — Bain’s Kloof, Du Toitskloof and Franschhoek to Swellendam

A day of pass-building history. We start on Bain’s Kloof Pass, Andrew Geddes Bain’s greatest work, built with convict labour and now a national monument — it carried the main road north for almost a hundred years. Next is the old Du Toitskloof Pass, started by Italian prisoners of war in the 1940s; when the war ended they carried an aluminium cross to the top of the highest peak to give thanks. From Franschhoek we climb the Franschhoek Pass, once called Olifantshoek after the elephant herds whose path it follows. It was South Africa’s first properly engineered road, and its bridge at Jan Joubert’s Gat is the oldest single-span stone-arch bridge in the country still in use. Then via Villiersdorp, Robertson and Ashton, over a string of smaller “hoogtes”, to Bontebok National Park outside Swellendam for the night.

Distance: ~351km · Ablutions: Hot showers and flush toilets

Day 4 — Tradouw, the R62 and Seweweekspoort

We start with the Tradouw Pass — “women’s path” in the old Khoi language — which many road builders consider Thomas Bain’s most technically ingenious pass. Look out for his original timber bridge near the bottom and the dark rock pools in the gorge below. Breakfast in Barrydale, then east along the R62 through Kruip Poort and the Naauwkloof towards Ladismith. From there we turn into Seweweekspoort, a gravel poort between towering walls of twisted, folded rock — the Cape Fold Mountains at their most dramatic. Seweweekspoort Peak above it, at 2,325 m, is the highest point in the Western Cape, and the poet C. Louis Leipoldt called the poort one of the seven wonders of the old Cape. We drive through and back out again, then cross the Huisrivier Pass and camp at the foot of the Swartberg near Calitzdorp.

Distance: ~235km · Ablutions: Hot showers and flush toilets

Day 5 — Swartberg Pass, Prince Albert and Meiringspoort

The big one. The Swartberg Pass was Thomas Bain’s last pass in the Cape and, for many, his finest: almost 24 km of gravel, built by some 250 convicts between 1883 and 1886 and held up by his famous dry-stone walls without a drop of cement. It is now a national monument. We stop at Die Top for the views before dropping down into Prince Albert for lunch — a Karoo village with thirteen national monuments. Then south again through Meiringspoort, where the road winds through 63 bends along the river; look out for Herrie se Klip, the rock C.J. Langenhoven carved in 1929. We cross the Outeniqua Mountains towards George via the Montagu Pass if it’s open and usable — opened in 1848, it lays claim to being the oldest unaltered pass still in use in South Africa. It is often closed, in which case we take the tar Outeniqua Pass from the Oudtshoorn side instead. We camp in the Garden Route National Park near Wilderness.

Distance: ~334km · Ablutions: Hot showers and flush toilets

Day 6 — The Seven Passes Road and Prince Alfred’s Pass

From Wilderness we follow the old Seven Passes Road through the forest towards Knysna — Thomas Bain’s road through seven river gorges, and the main route between George and Knysna for 70 years until the N2 opened in 1952. Its routing caused a famous falling-out between Bain and his brother-in-law Adam de Smidt; the two never spoke again. From Knysna we take on Prince Alfred’s Pass — at 68.5 km the longest publicly accessible mountain pass in South Africa, and probably Bain’s greatest work. Look out for kilometres of his original dry-stone walling, his family’s cottage at De Vlugt, and the “Calling the Herd” trumpets you can blow to call the elephants home. Via Avontuur and Uniondale we head for the western entrance of the Baviaanskloof and camp for the night.

Distance: ~224km · Ablutions: Hot showers and flush toilets

Day 7 — Through the Baviaanskloof

A full day in the Baviaanskloof, part of the Cape Floral Region World Heritage Site. The Nuwekloof Pass takes us into the kloof past Raaskrans, a 40 m cliff that hangs right over the road. Then Studtis Poort with its river crossings, the Grasnek Pass — 83 bends in 8.3 km and probably the most scenic of them all — Langkop, and the Holgat and Combrinks passes, built by local farmers in the 1930s. Thomas Bain plotted the lines of the western section from 1885; it was his last and longest road. Keep an eye out for red hartebeest and zebra on the Bergplaas plateau. It’s a relaxed day of gravel and small water crossings, with coffee and lunch in the kloof, before we reach our last camp at Kudu Kaya in the Cambria valley, near Patensie, at the eastern end of the Baviaanskloof.

Distance: ~112km · Ablutions: Hot showers and flush toilets · Overnight: Kudu Kaya, Cambria

Day 8 — Farewell (22 October 2027)

The trip finishes after breakfast on the morning of Day 8, and everyone heads home their own way.