Roadworks on the N7 between Piketberg and Citrusdal are trying the patience of motorists – I was stuck in a long queue at the southern end of Piekenierskloof Pass today, waiting for 25 minutes for the down traffic to pass a one-way section so we could go up.
Seeing the blockage ahead and having already exercised my patience at two other stops for roadworks (standard waiting time 10 minutes each), I thought I’d be clever and detour onto Thomas Bain’s historic pass just below the current one, but the farmer had locked the gate on this alternative route, so it was back to the queue for me and the Getaway Land Rover.
Work on the widening of the pass started last year in November and is scheduled to be finished in April 2012. Those in the Citrusdal tourism industry have high hopes that it will make them more accessible to visitors from Cape Town. However, all this modernisation of our passes worries me: the smoother and wider they make them, the less interesting they get. It kind of takes the adventure out of travel; I went over the upgraded Penhoek Pass north of Queenstown recently and found it so much tamer than my memories of it years ago.
What is worrying is that the widening of the steeper, northern section of Piekenierskloof Pass could damage Bain’s historic pass which is directly below it in some places. I do hope the engineers at Haw and Inglis, the contractors on this job, are mindful of this bit of history, which I ambled down on my last visit to the area, marvelling at the ingenuity of this road-building pioneer and his team of men equipped with not much more than picks and shovels.
On that occasion, I stayed at Hebron Highway Hospitality at the top of the pass. So when I saw their sign after I finally crested the pass, it was a relief to skip the fourth stop-and-wait, one-way traffic delay on the descent and pull into Hebron’s charming restaurant. Far from the madding queue, I watched the snow melting on the distant Sneeukop in the Cederberg and parked off in a sunny spot on the stoep to enjoy a crunchy salad. I followed this with my main reason for always stopping here: a slice of Stephen Oldroyd’s heavenly almond orange cake with cream, accompanied by a frothy cappuccino.
So, tip number one:
Don’t miss out on Hebron. You can even stay over in their new strawbale cottage, or in one of their quirkily decorated guest rooms.
And, tip number two:
If the view of the back of a ten tonne truck crawling up the N7 has lost its charm for you, skip roadblock number four by taking the back road from the top of Piekenierskloof Pass to Paleisheuwel. It meanders past vineyards, orchards pink with blossom at this time of year, and fields of rooibos and wheat waving in the breeze. Don’t be fooled by the first tarred bit which some wealthy farmers forked out millions to have tarred; most of the road is bumpy and corrugated dirt, especially after you fork right to Clanwilliam via Sewefontein. It’s wonderfully scenic, with islands of rugged rocks in seas of fynbos and bearded proteas blooming beside the road as it winds through the Olifants River Mountains. I had to stop and stand guard over a tortoise crossing the road, in case another car sped by (I didn’t want to pick him up because he’d have peed himself in fright, which could lead to death from dehydration in a dry spell).
This route gets even more interesting as it winds down a narrow valley before joining a tarred road from Marcuskraal and the N7. I followed it towards Clanwilliam, up another fynbos valley and through orchards bursting into blossom. The tar only lasted nine kilometres, then it was gravel again all the way through a deep gorge of red rocks to link up to the N7 at the Paleisheuwel sign just south of Clanwilliam, where the dam on the Olifants River is full to overflowing.
This very scenic route won’t save you any time, but it will leave you feeling you’ve had a little adventure instead of another frustrating delay in backed up traffic on the N7. You can also avoid Piekenierskloof Pass altogether by detouring via Paleisheuwel from the Eendekuil turn-off at the bottom of the pass and zigzagging across back roads to join the route I took from the top of the pass, rejoining the N7 south of Clanwilliam.
For more about Piekenierskloof Pass, go to the Cederberg extracts from my book, Passes & Poorts, at www.getaway.co.za/article/what-youll-see-on-cederberg-pass-piekenierskloof-pass
For more about Hebron, call 022-921-2595 or go to www.hebron.co.za
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