South Africa Part 2. Rooiberg to Prince Albert

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

The ride from Oudtshoorn to Rooiberg Lodge had taken us into the Swartberg Mountains, where we planned to spend several days riding. Although the mountain peaks are over 2,000m, most climbs here do not have a huge elevation gain. The toughest, the Swartberg Pass, ascends around 900m (3000ft) on the northern side. This isn't easy in the heat with panniers, but also not overly challenging compared to mountains in many other parts of the world.

Our route took us from Rooiberg Lodge over the Rooiberg Pass to Calitzdorp. We would spend a night there before doing a longer ride over the Swartberg Pass, with over 2,000m elevation gain in total, to Prince Albert. We would spend three nights in Prince Albert resting a bit, exploring the town and doing one or two circular rides depending on how we felt.

Rooiberg Pass & Calitzdorp

The day began leaving Rooiberg Lodge on a short but spectacular gravel climb, before following mostly rolling roads to the foot of the Rooiberg Pass. This was great riding through another remote area. One of the highlights of this section was seeing a puff adder stretched out on the road. The most deadly snake in Africa in terms of fatalities, the puff adder is generally slow moving, but with a quick strike. It seemed completely unfazed by our presence, so after admiring its patterning, we gave it a wide birth and continued on to the main climb of the day.

The Rooiberg Pass is only 6km (4 miles) long, with an average gradient of around 8%. The surface was rougher than most of gravel roads on this trip, which added a bit too the difficulty, but it was all rideable. The steepest section was in the middle, where the gradient was at around 10% for a couple of kilometres, but there was nothing super steep.

The climb is open, so there were panoramic views, and it was even more spectacular on the descent, where the higher peaks of the Swartberg range came into view.




At the foot of the descent, the road started entering farming territory and the gravel surface became quite corrugated. It was something of a relief when this transitioned into a paved road a few kilometres outside of Calitzdorp.

Calitzdorp is a semi-popular stop for driving tourists on the R62 route as it is home to some excellent wineries. We stopped at one of them - De Krans - for lunch just before reaching the town. It was a beautiful setting, with an outdoor bistro surrounded by vineyards. We enjoyed a cheese platter as well as tasting several of their white and red wines, including some port. In fact, Calitzdorp is particularly famous for its port wineries, which are the main produces of the wine in South Africa.

Fortunately, it was a very short ride from the winery to our guest house in Calitzdorp, a small but very charming town. Sometimes likened to Spain, due to the style of the buildings and the colourful flowers in the gardens, I highly recommend staying here. It has a relaxed atmosphere and there is some very interesting archictecture, both in the wineries and the Dutch Reformist church, with several buildings constructed using the local sandstone and traditional techniques.

Swartberg Pass & Prince Albert

The ride from Calitzdorp to Prince Albert was the toughest of the trip, but not overly challenging in general. It totalled over 2,000m of elevation gain, mostly on gravel roads, but for some reason it felt easier than the statistics suggest.

It was also probably the most beautiful ride of the trip. So beautiful, in fact, that we decided to do most of it again in the opposite direction in a few days time!

Leaving Calitzdorp, the gravel road soon became very quiet as it continued along the Nelsrivier past the Calitzdorp dam. The road here was undulating, but quite easy riding, passing several small farms and guesthouses. After around 20km, the road left the river behind and it began to climb more steadily. The gradients were pretty easy for the most part, as it ascended and descended, turning left before reaching Buffelsloof.

The climbing then became a bit more serious heading up towards the Swartberg Game Reserve, with a series of ascents and short descents. The gravel road was good and the scenery got increasingly spectacular as we climbed higher towards the Doringkloof pass.

Passing the Swartberg Game Reserve we could see giraffes in the distance and caused a mini-stampede of wildebeest which were resting close to the road. We would be returning there in a few days with the intention of exploring the game reserve more extensively on our bikes.