Notes from the road.
The roads we drive, what we learned on them, and how to go and drive them yourself.
Exclusive Lesotho Tour
Nine days, four border posts, one kingdom in the sky. It is not on the calendar. This is the route the FR Tour Team has drawn, told day by day, with our own photographs from the top of Sani and the edge of Maletsunyane.
Twist & Throttle: The Cinematic Route We Never Planned
A Z3 with the roof down, a GSXR600, three mountain passes, two police stops, one seven-year-old on the back of a bike, and a fuel gauge on empty.
Shut Down the Screens: The Drive That Became The Wilderness
"Dad, can we just go somewhere?" Twenty minutes later there was a bed booked at the far end of the Baviaanskloof. Three days, no signal, and the road we now call The Wilderness.
To Hell and Back: The Drive That Became The Ladder
Christmas Day, Mossel Bay. Church, presents, two cars loaded, and by lunchtime we were at the bottom of Gamkaskloof, the valley everyone calls Die Hel. This is the road we now run as The Ladder.
Breedt’s Neck in an Audi Q7
Everyone said the pass needed a proper 4x4. Dem had an Audi Q7, a rainy Sunday, and a story about a Mazda 323 that I may have made up.
Why a Mountain Pass Is Good for Your Head
I started driving into the mountains to get my family off their screens. It turned out I needed it more than they did. This is what a weekend on gravel does to a person, and why we built Forgotten Routes around it.
A New Way to Discover: From D-Max to Discovery
The bakkie got us everywhere. It also filled our luggage with dust and our spines with regret. Then a friend asked a question that changed the fleet.
The Ultimate Prank on a Jeep Driver
Dimitri's Jeep came back from the mechanic washed and gleaming. What I did to it took him a whole day to find, because I did absolutely nothing.
A Day of 4×4 Training at Kungwini
Before you take the new car anywhere serious, spend a day with someone who knows what it can actually do. We did, with Dimitri, at Kungwini.
Down the winding road: Berg en Rivier
Winter camping at the foot of the Gouws Mountains, a trailer pitched on a slope above the icy Wilge, and a 4x4 track that woke everyone up.
Read one you like? Go and drive it.
The planner works out the driving time with breaks, the fuel and the papers for your own trip, and hands it all over as one download.