Quickies...topical bits and pieces
Southern & Eastern Africa
| Quickies ...topical bits and pieces Southern & Eastern Africa |
|
-
Grootrivier Pass - |
|
| Overview Before the establishment of the Garden Route section of South Africa's N2 highway a small secondary road (R102), snaking its way through the area's valleys and gorges, provided the only access into South Africa's "Garden of Eden". When the R102 was built its engineers did not have the luxury of today's huge concrete-arch bridges and thus the route descends into gorges rather than jumping across them. If you have time, diverting from the N2 onto the R102 makes for a very scenic and quiet detour. On the Garden Route the best sections of the R102 are those incorporating the Bloukrans River Pass and Grootrivier Pass. 
While we strongly recommend exploring the two passes they are secondary roads through mountainous areas and thus prone to damage from heavy rains. If you are doing a self-drive tour it is advisable that you enquire about the state of the roads from locals before venturing onto them.
However, following the Grootrivier Pass (R102) will unlock for you one of the most beautiful coastal forests and shorelines on the whole of the Garden Route. The Pass winds its way from the N2 on the coastal plateau down to the small village of Nature's Valley. Along the route you will look down onto, and pass through, dense coastal forest. The forest is alive with birdlife as well as small antelope, vervet monkeys and baboons. The road features various viewpoints and picnic spots. The western end of the Pass is located very close to Monkeyland - another popular attraction on the Garden Route.
Nature's Valley is home to
the De Vasselot Nature Reserve (part of the Tsitsikamma
National Park). The village features various other short coastal and inland trails.It also has a lovely sandy beach and a shallow lagoon, which is safe for swimming. Accommodation in this secluded destination is limited to private guesthouses, B&B's and the Nature's Valley Rest Camp (De Vasselot Nature Reserve), which offers camping and picnic sites as well as economic log "bush huts" (not en-suite). (Also see: Bloukrans
River Pass) |
|
| Internet resources: Nothing worthwhile. | |
| Your contribution: Click here to add, comment on, or correct a topic. Click here to share a personal experience or impression with our website visitors. Click here to send an e-mail to the people behind this website. | |
-
Africa Deluxe Tours' main website - home | tours & safaris | hotel & resort stays | car rental | coach charters | flights | conference packages | enquiries | about us |
|
-
Africa Deluxe Tours © 2006
- All images used on this website are copyrighted to Africa Deluxe Tours, South African Tourism or a 3d party in which case permission for the use thereof has been obtained or clearly implied. No reproduction without permission allowed. - you may link to Quickies*, for this page's URL right-click (here) and choose "properties" / "page info", for help click here* - |
|
The
village marks the end of the most popular hiking trail in