Carlisleshoekspruit Pass

In December, we headed off into the Eastern Cape Highlands to refilm the 10 passes of the Ben 10 Eco-Challenge. Carlisleshoekspruit Pass is impressive no matter how many times you drive it. On our way back up the pass after a very long and extended lunch at Walkerbouts Inn in Rhodes and en route back to Tiffindell at dusk, we noticed a VW Polo TDi towing a luggage trailer behind us. Instinctively I knew I needed to hang back and keep an eye on this car, which would be highly unlikely to make it up the pass. At the first steep incline, the front wheels started spinning and as the driver tried reversing back to a more level area, the trailer jack-knifed. To cut a long story short, we towed the Polo and trailer up to the next switchback, unhitched the trailer on a reasonably level area and sent the Polo up the pass without his passengers and trailer, which we took up to Tiffindell. Moral of the story is that this pass is seriously steep, dipping below 1:3 at one or two specific spots.

With dramatic scenery and a great drive packed with hairpins and tumbling waterfalls, this is always a great mountain pass, regardless of the weather. If you have never done it, make a plan Stan (in the immortal words of Paul Simon) and try some of the other challenge passes in the area whilst you're there. We needed three new videos to do this great pass justice.

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