Completed by Thomas Bain and his team of convicts in 1888, the Swartberg Pass is now 136 years old, a national monument and a testament to Bain’s road-building skills. It winds through 23.8 km and the bulk of it traverses the Swartberg Nature Reserve, linking...
Mitzi, Marion’s sister-in-law, owner of Makadas Adventures, planned this private cycling tour, and I assume, dubbed it the “Karoo corridor” too. In 5 days most of us covered 265 km, climbing through 2942 m and descending 2957 m. Some rode more and...
By popular demand we arranged another private MTB tour aimed at occasional cyclists, and not racers. The format was the same: reasonable daily distances, emphasis on touring and taking in the scenery, backup vehicles trailing us, plenty of stops and camping all the...
Our mid-winter tour of the Garden Route and Little Karoo ran the gamut of weather from crystal-clear, windless days to fierce storms, from balmy Karoo days to icy nights. We set off to take the roads less travelled and to stay at least two nights in a place to get a...
The Swartberge – the black mountains – are literally black now. A recent fire, the second in quick succession, has charred them. The other wildfire a few years ago destroyed the third hiking hut so that the trail has had to be adapted to use only two huts...
These three short hyperlapse videos of mountain pass descents on our recent Karoo MTB Tour were made by passing the GoPro Hero 4 Black clips through Microsoft’s Hyperlapse Pro software. Descent of Holgat Pass in the Baviaanskloof: Descent of Bosluiskloof Pass on...
Thank you for visiting my outdoor blog. RalphPina.com documents my experiences over many years of appreciating, and adventuring in, Nature. It celebrates visual beauty, advocates minimal impact, reflects on humans’ relationship with our ecosphere, spans the planet but focuses on the wild diversity of southern Africa. Photos, videos and GPS maps of hiking, cycling, kayaking, abseiling, canoeing and windsurfing..
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