Route guides · 05
Gravel to the Cederberg
Three hours of tar from Stellenbosch, then gravel that ranges from smooth and fast to washboard that will loosen a number plate. Most of the trouble on this run is decided before you leave the house.
Where the tar ends
The N7 north through Malmesbury, Moorreesburg and Citrusdal is easy, open and faster than it looks, and the Piekenierskloof climb is the only part that asks anything of the car. Past Clanwilliam the character changes: the Pakhuis Pass is tarred, and beyond it the roads into the Cederberg interior are gravel of varying quality, with the Uitkyk side the roughest.
From Plein Street to the first sustained gravel is about three hours if you do not stop. Our advice is to stop anyway, in Citrusdal, and do the tyre and pressure check there rather than at a shaded pull-off with a hot engine and no light.
Tyres, pressures and the spare
Gravel punishes low-profile tyres. A 19-inch wheel with a 35-section sidewall has almost no cushion between the rim and a sharp stone, and that is the single most common cause of a ruined wheel on these roads. A 17-inch wheel with a taller sidewall is the better tool, and if you have the choice of cars for the trip, take the one on smaller rims.
Drop pressures modestly for gravel, not dramatically: around 0.3 bar below your normal road setting gives a better ride and more sidewall protection without risking the bead. Put them back up before you rejoin the N7. Then check that the spare is actually inflated and that the jack, the wheel brace and the locking-nut key are all in the car. We have met two parties who discovered a flat spare in the Cederberg, and neither had a second plan.
Hire conditions that catch people out
Read the agreement before you sign, specifically the sections on road surface and recovery. Many hire agreements in South Africa exclude cover for damage sustained on unproclaimed or gravel roads, and some exclude tyre and glass damage entirely unless you have bought a separate waiver. Reversing over a rock at a campsite is also, in several agreements, outside cover.
If gravel is in your plan, say so at the counter and get the surface clause confirmed in writing before you take the keys. Photograph all four wheels, both bumpers, the windscreen and the roof at handover, with the date visible on your phone. It takes four minutes and settles arguments that otherwise cost thousands of rand.
Washboard, drifts and dust
Corrugations have a speed at which they stop hammering the car, usually somewhere between 50 and 70 km/h, and finding it is tempting. The risk is that the tyres spend less time in contact with the surface, so braking distances stretch and the steering goes vague. We hold a slower speed on the rougher sections and accept that it takes longer.
Dust is a safety problem, not just an inconvenience. Behind another vehicle you can lose the road entirely for several seconds. Hang back by two hundred metres or more, keep your lights on so you are visible in somebody else's dust, and slow right down when an approaching vehicle's plume reaches you. River drifts after rain deserve a stop and a look: if you cannot see the bottom, do not drive into it.
If something goes wrong
Mobile signal is patchy from the Pakhuis Pass inwards and absent in several of the valleys. Tell somebody your route and your expected return time before you leave the tar. Carry four litres of drinking water per person, a torch that is not your phone, and enough warm clothing for a night, because the Cederberg gets genuinely cold after dark even in summer.
Breakdown recovery to gravel addresses takes hours, not minutes, and some tracking and roadside-assistance products limit how far off a proclaimed road they will come. Check your own policy wording for that limit now rather than reading it by torchlight. If you cannot find it, phone and ask; the answer takes two minutes.
In short
- Take the car on smaller rims with taller sidewalls; low-profile tyres and sharp gravel do not mix.
- Get the gravel-surface clause confirmed in writing at the hire counter and photograph the car.
- Hang back two hundred metres in dust, and do not enter a drift whose bottom you cannot see.