Driving the path less enjoyed to KwaZulu-Natal

Posted on 28 January 2011

With some holiday time available, a set date to be in Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal and a week to get there, from Cape Town, I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to travel the path less travelled. Well maybe it is not fair to call it the path less travelled, but rather the path less enjoyed.

Having already decided I was going to drive up to KwaZulu-Natal and, as they say, stop to smell the roses, all that remained was deciding on the route to take. Having read a bit, it seemed that all of the larger tourism companies chose to take the N2. Well, I was not looking for crowds and traffic but rather a chance to enjoy the sounds of nature and the free road, something one rarely gets to experience in the Monday to Friday world of work and rush hour traffic.

And so I mapped out our route. The idea was to head along and in the direction of the N1, making use of smaller routes where possible and where the sites warranted this. Now there are many, many benefits to this. Firstly, you are headed in the opposite direction to most of the traffic on the roads as you head inland, whilst many of our less fortunate landlocked countrymen flock to the coast. This means more open road, something anyone who enjoys driving will appreciate, less tailgaters and less overtaking.

So with work behind me, and three weeks of holiday ahead the bags were packed, the car was ready and so our journey up and alongside the N1 began. An important part of a trip such as this, for us anyway, was to take the routes less travelled and often more recommended, if you have the time available. We decided to put this into practice at the first opportunity and took the Du Toitskloof Pass, as opposed to the Huguenot Tunnel. With over 12,500 cars passing through the Huguenot tunnel a day during peak season, we really wanted to see what all those people were missing out on. As far as the start of our road trip went, we had made the right choice and it looked as though we were on track for a great trip ahead. This route added an additional 11km to the trip, but gave us the opportunity to see some spectacular scenery, on what can now be added to my list as one of the most scenic passes in South Africa, especially if you drive it shortly after sunrise. And as you come to the end of the pass and see the streams of cars shooting into the tunnel you can’t help but think, do they know what they are missing. Unfortunately, our schedule did not allow us to spend a night in the area, to enjoy the beautiful mountains surrounding us and the many fantastic fly fishing stream, but I knew this was something I could enjoy over a weekend – something I’ll let you know more about when that weekend comes.

The road trip iss now underway and we have reached our first short stop, Worcester, for a quick refuel before the first of our proper detours begins…

Find out about the wonders of the Route 62 in my next post.






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