Breedt’s Neck, north-west of Magaliesburg, is a pass that a lot of people will tell you can’t be done without a serious 4×4. We took a Land Rover and an Audi Q7. It rained.
Nobel Village
We met for breakfast at Nobel Village. Dem and Michelle were with us for the first time, and Dem was keen to find out what his Q7 was actually for. Over the eggs I told him an old piece of 4×4 folklore: that a Mazda 323 once made it up Breedt’s Neck. It’s the sort of story that gets repeated at fires. Whether it’s true is beside the point. It gave Dem the courage he needed for the day.
Then out along the R24 toward Rustenburg, and the turn onto the pass.
The entrance test
The first mud was nothing. The Q7 went through without noticing. Then the rocks.
The 4×4 people call the first rock section the entrance test: if the car can’t get over this, you’re in for a long day. The Land Rover walked over it. The Audi, lower and on road tyres, needed help. So we started packing rocks. Twenty minutes of lifting and placing, and Dem, refusing to let the Mazda story beat him, eased the Q7 over.
Everyone’s hands were mud to the wrist. I went to the car for a cloth. Dem couldn’t wait that long and wiped his on Michelle’s brand-new light grey jacket. The jacket did not survive. Michelle informed him they’d be going shopping the next day.
Up
The weather held. A light drizzle now and then, mostly nothing. We worked up the pass, packing a few more rocks where the smaller obstacles needed it, and the Audi kept going.
At the top, the valley opened out below us and the mountains did what mountains do, which is make everyone go quiet. We had a toast, put the drone up, and took the photographs you take when you’ve just done something people said you couldn’t.
Down
The descent is rock steps, one after another. We took them slowly, packing where we had to, mostly not needing to, with a spotter walking ahead. Then the washaway, where earlier drivers had left a bed of rocks across the gap. A few more, a good angle, and the Q7 was across.
And then the last one, the one we’d forgotten about, which was the hardest of the lot. We walked it. I found a different line off to one side. The Land Rover tried it first and it worked, and the Audi followed the same wheel tracks, and that was Breedt’s Neck done.
For someone who had never driven off tar before, Dem had a real feel for it. He didn’t panic, he didn’t rush, and he listened to the spotter. That’s most of it.
Brauhaus
The moment we hit the tar, the sky opened. Proper rain, the kind you can’t see through. If that had come an hour earlier on the mountain, we’d have had a very different afternoon. It passed as fast as it came, and we ended the day at Brauhaus with hot food, cold drinks and everyone talking at once about the bit that had scared them most.
Breedt’s Neck in a Q7. It can be done. Bring rocks, bring a spotter, bring a sense of humour, and don’t bring a new jacket.
