Seweweekspoort and Gamkapoort

On 30 May 2008 I had the to go to Ladismith, Cape for business. Rain was forecast but seeing as we’re having a bit of a drought and the Karoo area where Ladismith is was in the grips of a 3 year drought, I decided I’d take my chances and left home around 7H30 on my DR650, just after walking my second grader to school.

It was nippy and I stopped at the Country Pumpkin in Barrydale for some coffee - they always give bikers some sherry even if it’s 8 in the morning, then sat next to a log fire for a while. The owner came over to chat about bikes and when I left kindly offered me some newspapers to stuff down the front of my jacket. Off-course I declined, I might look (and indeed sometimes feel) a bit soft but I’ve been through worse and was certain I’d be OK.

The 80 or so k’s from Barrydale to Ladismith is a nice tar road. There are other roads which are more exciting but today I was on a mission - I didn’t even stop at Ronnies Sex Shop, it was closed. I set off at a steady 120 km/h and tried my best to think happy thoughts to make it seem shorter.

I just got my bike back after limping around with totally shot rear tyre as well as chain and sprockets for more than two months - thats how long it took to get the spares but in the end old Tim came through and we all lived happily ever after! It was probably my fault as I wanted a different (bigger) rear sprocket as the bike feels a bit over geared and apparently they aren’t easy to get hold of in the stock 525 configuration, so looking for those took about 2 weeks before I got fed up and just said “Please, just order the OEM parts!” which costs more.

But back to the trip.

About 10 k’s on the Calitzdorp side of Ladismith theres a roadsign that will point you towards Seweweekspoort - it will take you through the Klein Swartberg towards Laingsburg if you follow the road all the way. It has been called one of the “must-ride” roads in South Africa and will feature on every bikers list - famous poet C Louis Leipoldt called it one of the seven wonders of the Cape and I can’t argue with that.

Riding down the narrow ravine you can hardly imagine the power of the volcanic eruptions that gave birth to the mangled rock formations that at times goes straight up. Often the road winds through outcrops that are hardly wide enough to let the narrow road through. It was around 11 o’clock when I went through there and for long periods I was riding in shade as the sun probably reaches the bottom for a couple of minutes every day.

The poort (gap) is about 17km long and was completed in 1862 - you can still see the ruins of the camp the prisoners that built it used more than a century ago.

As for the name Seweweekspoort, which translate to Seven weeks gap, it is said that it took an early commando 7 weeks to take a band of criminals through the poort - the idea was to ban them! It also took farmers 7 weeks to get through if they got lost, the cops to find cattle thieves and brandy smugglers. So on formidable obstacle in any mans book, but more likely it was named after a cleric called Zerwick who operated in the area near Amalienstein.

Just as you come out of the poort, theres a road that turns right towards the Gamkapoort dam, 25 km further. If you carry on with the road you’ll end up in Laingsburg. I have heard about the dam, been to Gamkaskloof (aka “THE HELL”) and I’ve been wanting to goto the Gamkapoort Dam ever since I first read about it, and even though it was cold and there were hardly any sun to warm things up through the Poort there was no stopping me. Fortunately the sign to the dam clearly states that it’s 25km’s down the road, so a quick calculation confirmed that petrol will be more than enough and that was that - I was off!

Then you get to the Bosluiskloof Pass, an absolute stunning pass. With the blue, blue mountains as a backdrop you ride down into what appears to be a God forsaken valley. Vegetation is sparse to put it mildly and the entire landscape reminds one of the moon or the photos from Mars I saw in the newspaper the previous week. About halfway to the dam theres what appears to be a guest farm with pretty little thatched houses being built and about 1km further down the road a troop of baboons strolled across the road - otherwise there was no sign of intelligent life - apart from me off-course.

Then the road flattens out with stunning vistas:

After another 10 or so kilos, you get to the dam. Water levels are low and it seems funny to find a dam with dirty brown water between the brown mountains. There are roads one can follow which appears to run towards the dam but I stayed on the main road which took me to the dam wall and a couple of houses. There ware cars parked in front of two of the 3 houses but no other signs of life. I saw a sign for cottages to rent and that was probably them.:

Riding the poort and to the dam was a total of about 100km’s and took about 2 hours. Theres not much to see or do at the dam - it’s rather deserted but awesome in it’s ruggedness. I can’t wait to go back and camp there.

The road isn’t bad and I think most cars will make it .

Tags: Bosluiskloof, CCK1019, DR650, Gamkapoort, Ladismith, Ronnies Sex Shop, Seweweekspoort