Three days on the passes and forestry roads the ox-wagons used before there was a tar road over the Outeniqua, in your own luxury 4×4. A night in a hotel on the beach at Mossel Bay to begin, and a night under canvas on a farm halfway between George and Uniondale.
For four hundred years the only way between the coast and the Karoo was over the Outeniqua on foot, hoof and wagon wheel.
The ox-wagon route ran from Heidelberg to De Vlugt on Prince Alfred's Pass, following paths that elephants and the Khoi-San had worn long before. Traders, hunters and soldiers used it. During the Boer War supplies came over it. Contraband witblits came over it too, by a pass that still carries the name. Thomas Bain realigned the worst of it at Duiwelskloof in 1864, and his Montagu Pass of 1847 and Prince Alfred's Pass of 1867 turned a dangerous crossing into a road.
Then the tar came over the Outeniqua Pass and the old routes were forgotten. They are still there: the stone walls, the gradients, the forestry roads and the mountain track that comes out at a picnic spot with the sea on one side and the Karoo on the other. Louvain, the farm halfway between George and Uniondale with the old Cape Dutch church, sits in the middle of it, and that is where the night under canvas is spent.
Every Forgotten Routes expedition begins in the same place: a hotel on the beach at Mossel Bay, forty minutes from George airport.
Arrive when you like in the afternoon. Settle in, walk on the sand, have a bath. We meet for supper in the hotel, you meet the other three cars, and over the last glass we tell you what tomorrow looks like. If you are flying in, one of our own cars is already in the car park with the keys at reception.
In the morning the convoy leaves from the hotel with full tanks, and the road begins.
The driving day starts on the pass the tar replaced: gravel, dry-stone retaining walls and hairpins from 1847, climbing out of George with the coast falling away behind you.
It is a gentle introduction. Low range is not needed yet. What it gives you is the first taste of what the rest of the Garden Route does not see: an empty road, an old one, and the sense that you have left the tourist map behind you within twenty minutes of a good coffee.
At the top the Karoo opens out, the road drops to Louvain, and the forestry begins.
From Louvain the track climbs through the plantations and onto the ridge of the Outeniqua on the old ox-wagon line. It is steeper than it looks and longer than it looks, with washed-out sections that ask for low range, first gear and patience rather than speed. The weather changes without warning up here. We have had rain at the bottom and snow at the top on the same afternoon.
The picnic spot near the summit is the reason people do it: the Indian Ocean on one side, the Klein Karoo on the other, and nothing man-made in sight except the road you came up. Lunch is laid there.
Then down the far side through the forestry to the coast at Wilderness, and the tar road home. That is the last morning. The afternoon before, Louvain has an obstacle course, and the lead car will show you what a luxury 4×4 can do on it. You will not be asked to follow it.
Day one is the beach. Day two is Bain's pass, the forestry and the farm. Day three is over the top the way the wagons went, and down to the sea.
Arrive in the afternoon. Those flying in land at George, twenty minutes up the road, and find their car, or one of ours, waiting. Settle in, walk on the sand, have a bath. Supper is in the hotel, at one table with the other three cars, and over the last glass we walk you through the mountain.
A civilised start. Half an hour along the coast to George, then off the tar and onto the pass Thomas Bain built in 1847: gravel, dry-stone walls, hairpins, and the coast falling away behind you. Low range is not needed yet. It is the first taste of an empty, old road that the rest of the Garden Route never sees.
At the top the Karoo opens out, the road drops to Louvain, and the forestry begins. Tyre pressures come down. The walk-around: the four controls you have never pressed, ten minutes per car. Then the forestry roads behind the farm, empty all the way to the horizon, with lunch laid somewhere with a view.
Louvain has an obstacle course, and the lead car will show you what a factory-standard luxury 4×4 can do on it, wheels in the air and all. You will not be asked to follow it. You are welcome to try the gentler half with a spotter, and most people do.
Among the pines, with the old Cape Dutch church for company. Champagne on ice. A private walk-in suite for each car: king bed, pressed white linen, a fridge, air-conditioning, and an outdoor shower with the mountain in front of it.
Fire, and a chef. Lamb from over the mountain, bread from the coals, wine from the valley behind you. Four cars' worth of people who have just found out what their car does on a forestry road, and want to talk about it. Then a cold, clear mountain night and the quietest sleep you have had.
Breakfast with the mist still in the pines. Then up the old ox-wagon line onto the ridge of the Outeniqua: steeper than it looks, longer than it looks, low range and patience. If it has rained, the forestry roads instead, and the lead car takes the clay alone. Lunch at the picnic spot near the summit with the Indian Ocean on one side and the Klein Karoo on the other. Down through the forestry to Wilderness, tyres back up to road pressure, and home along the coast, looking up at where you were an hour ago.
One price per car, for two. Everything below is in it.
A hotel on the beach at Mossel Bay. Supper with the group and the briefing.
Montagu Pass, the forestry roads behind Louvain, the obstacle course demonstration. The camp standing among the pines, the chef, the fire.
The ox-wagon route to the summit. Lunch with the sea on one side and the Karoo on the other. Down to Wilderness, home.
Louvain runs every third month, at the end of the month. Four cars at most.
Tell us what you drive and when you would like to come. If there is a place, we call.
