South Africa Part 1. George to Rooiberg Lodge

This is the first of four parts detailing a three week cycling tour around South Africa in March 2026. Here are the links to Part Two, Part Three. and Part Four.

Our overnight flight to Johannesburg was followed by a short hop to Cape Town, where we spent four nights exploring the city and doing some hiking. We had initially been planning to unbox the bikes and do a ride along Chapman's Peak and to the Cape of Good Hope. However, we decided not to due to a combination of scary traffic, strong winds and a lack of desire to unpack the bike, only to have to pack it again in a couple of days.

Instead we did some very enjoyable hikes on Table Mountain. I won't go into many details about the routes here, because it wasn't the main point of the trip, and there is plenty of information elsewhere online. One climbed from the Botanical Garden via Skeleton Gorge, and then descended back towards the CBD via Platteklip Gorge. The second one followed the Contour Path around from Newlands Forest. These were both fantastic in terms of scenery and were moderately challenging, but with no real technical difficulties.

There have been security issues on Table Mountain, with muggings relatively common in certain areas. We hiked by ourselves and didn't really feel threatened, although there were a couple of dodgy looking groups hanging around close to King's Blockhouse. I would be cautious and do your research before heading out!



Cape Town is a beautiful city, with great nature and delicious food, however, the security situation in general weighs heavily. As someone who is adventurous and likes to explore, I found the various warnings about safety and extreme security measures quite restrictive.

We were repeatedly told never to walk in the dark, not to go to certain areas (including Table Mountain by ourselves), don't use your phone in public etc... We generally followed this advice, although ignored it a couple of times when curiosity got the better of us. Cape Town does have an extremely high violent crime rate, and although it is mostly concentrated in non-touristy areas, it does spill over at times. If you plan to ride out of Cape Town, be particularly wary of bike-jackings and other crime targetting cyclists.

With that said, we were ready to leave Cape Town after a few days and were eager to get to George and begin cycling in a supposedly safer part of the country.

(N.B. I apologise for the poor quality of some of the photos. I'm not the best photographer at the best of times, and in Cape Town and some other towns I was using a very old phone that I didn't mind losing!)

George & Oudsthoorn

The flight from Cape Town to George took less than one hour and the bike boxes were unloaded first from the plane. We checked in early to the hotel in the centre and assembled the bikes, before going on a short circular ride to make sure everything was in working order.

You can see the loop around George on the map; this was a great circular ride which headed to the Garden Route Dam and explored some of the gravel roads and trails around there.

The scenery was spectacular looking over the lake towards the Outeniqua Mountains, and the trails were mostly smooth and very fun to ride. On this ride we discovered that there are many more mountain bike trails in the area, and decided that we would spend at least a couple of days in George at the end of the trip to explore them.




For now though, we had booked just one night in George and were planning to cross the Outeniqua mountains towards Oudtshoorn. The Outeniqua mountains really form a barrier between two very distinct microclimates. To the south it is wet and relatively cool, while to the north it is very hot and dry.

The weather forecast suggested that temperatures would reach a fairly pleasant 30°C (86°F) in George, but would exceed 40°C (104°F) over the mountains in the Klein Karoo region. Fortunately, most of the climbing would be on the cooler side, so we weren't too fazed by this.

Our route intended to cross the Montagu Pass - a beautiful, historic gravel road that was built in the mid 19th century to connect the coast with the interior. We had read reports though that this was currently closed, due to road damage and subsequent construction work. On some forums, cyclists had reported getting through with no problems, but a recent update by the local authorities suggested that the pass was definitely closed.

Due to this uncertainty, we decided to try the Montagu Pass, but if it seemed impassable, we would divert across to the Outeniqua pass instead. This wasn't ideal, because the Outeniqua Pass is a less scenic main road with a fair bit of traffic; although it does at least have a wide shoulder in places.




In the morning we headed out of George and began the off-road climb towards Montagu Pass. It was very enjoyable through the dense green vegetation, and we soon emerged in a clearing at the Old Toll House. This picturesque building controlled access to the pass for nearly 100 years and is now a museum.

Unfortunately, our access to the pass was also controlled here. New signs and fences had been put up which strongly prohibited continuing beyond this point, due to construction work. The signs even specifically mentioned that it is closed to cyclists and pedestrians. So, we diverted across to the Outeniqua Pass.

This was a disappointment, because the Montagu Pass looks stunning on photos I have seen; however, the Outeniqua Pass was also fine for riding. It was a steady 6% gradient most of the way, and the wide shoulder meant that we were out of the traffic. The views were pleasant rather than spectacular.

A short descent took us into the Kilprivier Valley. This is one of the main hop growing areas in South Africa, and there were several small shops selling local beer. If it wasn't so early in the day and so hot, it would have been a nice place to stop for a tasting!

Around this point the 12 Road loses its shoulder and becomes quite hazardous to ride. It was necessary to take a detour on the 9 across to Herold to continue with the planned route on dirt back roads into Oudsthoorn. On the map above I have included the route over the Montagu Pass, which is by far the recommended option. As far as understand, it is due to reopen some time in 2027.





From Herold it is easy riding on gently rolling gravel roads into Oudtshoorn. Oudtshoon is famous for being the ostrich capital of the world and, as you approach the town, you will see fields of ostriches which are farmed for their meat and feathers.

Oudtshoorn is the largest town in Klein Karoo and is something of a tourist centre. There is not much of interest in the town itself; but it is surrounded by attractions such as the Karoo Caves, ostrich farms and the Swartberg Mountains. We would explore more of these later on the trip, but for now planned to head west through the Gamkaberg Reserve.

Rooiberg Lodge

Leaving Oudtshoorn we were joined by a local rider who owned the guest house where we stayed. He was a keen cyclist who gave us plenty of information about the region, as well as some warnings about South African drivers! We began on flat terrain, riding past ostrich farms on a mixture of paved and gravel roads. After around 20km (12 miles) we left the village of Armoed and the scenery quickly became much wilder.

We followed gravel and dirt roads for the next 60km (37 miles) alongside the Gamkaberg Nature Reserve. This was a fantastic section of road, with gentle climbs and descents and a mostly smooth surface with very few corrugations.

As we got closer to the Gouritsrivier there were several gates, which were all unlocked. This is a public road, but the gates are designed to keep wildlife and domesticated animals where they should be! On this section we saw a lot of baboons (particularly alongside the river), as well as kudu, wild ostriches, goats and tortoises. In the entire 60km stretch we only saw one car and 4 people working on farms - it was a beautiful wild area.