September 2023

Driving into the Baviaanskloof

In our last TB Thursday post, we told you how we took our Suzuki Jimny on a short-day trip seven years ago right after we bought it. Well, now it was time to test Berto’s new Toyota Hilux bakkie … and let me tell you, we thoroughly tested it!

Our friends, who now live in Jeffreys Bay after their retirement, invited us to join them for a weekend in the famous Baviaanskloof.

Where is the Baviaanskloof?

The Baviaanskloof is in the Karoo Midlands in the Eastern Cape Province and is an awe-inspiring World Heritage Site. It is mostly a 4×4 route with river crossings, steep ascents and descents through majestic mountains. The distance is about 203km (126 miles), but travel time is about 6 – 8 hours.

Our plan was to enter the Baviaans from the western town of Willowmore and then exit at the small eastern village of Patensie.

Did it work out that way? Not quite, because while we were in the Baviaanskloof, so much rain fell that the 8-year drought was finally broken. But more about that in future posts.

Nanaga Farm Stall:

Before we got to our friends we had to travel from East London to Jeffreys Bay. And you may remember from previous posts, that on this road is my (now) favourite farm stall, Nanaga. We stopped at this beautiful place to enjoy breakfast.

Lovely garden at Nanaga Farm Stall

Inside restaurant at Nanaga

Tea and Savoury Nanaga Crepes

After finally packing everything into our bakkies at our friends’ house, we all went to bed early. The next morning as we left, gentle rain greeted us. We had already heard warnings on the news about a storm coming and kept our fingers crossed that our weekend in the Baviaanskloof wouldn’t turn out too badly.

As we turned inland and away from the coast, most of the clouds disappeared and blue skies appeared above us.

Happy to see some blue skies

Berto prepared bobotie jaffles the night before and after 2 hours on the road we were ready to enjoy these when we reached Uniondale.

Bobotie jaffles

The ghost of Uniondale (“Die spookmeisie van Uniondale”):

Before we get to the Baviaanskloof, we would like to share the story of the ghost of Uniondale. This famous story is based on real events that took place in the early hours of Easter weekend 1968. A young woman and her fiancé were travelling during a stormy night when he lost control of the car. She died and he survived.

Since her tragic death, stories of a ghostly hitchhiker near Uniondale have begun to surface. It is said that she is still wandering around looking for her fiancé and that she cannot accept that she is dead. There is even a well-known Afrikaans song about this ghost. Is it fiction or is it real? No one knows, but some motorists maintain that when they drove along this road during the night on Easter weekends, someone suddenly appeared in the back seat of their car …

Sculpture by Ian Visser of “The unknown Ghost Lady of Uniondale”

At the sculpture outside Uniondale

After deflating the bakkies’ tires in Willowmore, we finally ended up on the dirt road of the Baviaanskloof.

Dirt road, on our way to the Baviaanskloof

We are officially in the Baviaanskloof

As we drove into the narrow kloof (gorge), we stopped at a safe place to admire the beautiful rock formations.

Rock formations in Baviaanskloof

Our bakkies

The dirt road was built between 1880 and 1890 by South Africa’s most famous road engineer, Thomas Bain. We made our way slowly through the kloof and were really stunned with the amazing landscape. The blue sky added to the splendour.

Shallow river crossing

Despite the ongoing drought, the kloof is lush and green

At Baviaanskloofsleutel (“key”) we stopped again. It is said that when the Baviaanskloof Key rock falls off the cliff, the Kloof will be locked forever.

At Baviaanskloofsleutel (“key”)

Rocks at Baviaanskloofsleutel

Makkedaat Caves:

Our first overnight stop was at Makkedaat Caves which is about 50km (31 miles) from Willowmore. It is a working farm and there are several caves to spend the night in, all of which are self-catering.

Entrance to Makkedaat Caves

One such cave can only be reached with a 4×4 and our friends first went to show us this cave before we drove to our own cave for the night.

The road to the cave

Back down again with a lovely view of the farm

Slowly making our way down (📷 credit: Anita Horn)

There is even a honeymoon cave! We quickly drove to this cave to see what it looked like and loved how intimate it was.

Cave for two

The cave in which we spent the night, ‘Dawid se bak’, can accommodate 6 people. There are two rooms on either side of the cave with a communal area in the middle. The bathroom (shower and toilet) is outside and then there is also a wonderful outside area where you can have a ‘braai’.

Entrance to our cave and ‘braai’ area

Communal area

Innovative kitchen cupboard and fireplace

Our rooms

We decided to push our twin beds together because we only brought one queen size duvet. It worked perfectly and we slept warm and cozy.

Our ‘renovated’ room

After unpacking and making our beds, we quickly put on our hiking boots. Eugene and Anita wanted to take us to a gorge which is said to be breathtakingly beautiful.

But more about this in our next post – click here Baviaanskloof (Part 2).