gravel

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    Loxton Village Gravel Loop

    ByMtbApp

    Loxton is the secret jewel of the Upper Karoo — a perfectly preserved Victorian farming village 60km east of Victoria West where the grid of whitewashed 1890s cottages around the Dutch Reformed Church has changed so little in 130 years that the sense of temporal displacement on arrival is complete. There are no chain stores, no traffic lights, no advertising billboards. The main street is unpaved. The village dam on the eastern edge of town provides a swimming hole for summer heat relief that has served this function for a century. The blesbok and springbok graze the commonage on the village outskirts as they presumably always have.

    For cyclists, Loxton provides the archetypal quiet Karoo gravel experience: flat farm roads in every direction through Upper Karoo sheep country, the enormous sky above, the absence of other traffic and the village church tower as an anchor point on the horizon for the return. The 20km village circuit is a gentle introduction; the 40km hills extension ventures into the low escarpment country northeast of town where game farms add wildlife sightings and the first hint of topographic relief to the otherwise pan-flat terrain. A cold drink at the Village Café after the ride, with the Loxton village square in the afternoon light, is one of the Northern Cape’s most quietly satisfying small pleasures.

    Getting There

    Loxton is on the R61, 60km east of Victoria West. GPS: -31.4667, 22.3667. From Cape Town: N1 east to Three Sisters, R29 north through Loxton direction (700km total).

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    Hanover Karoo Gravel Loop

    ByMtbApp

    Hanover is a quiet Upper Karoo dorp on the R389 between Richmond and Britstown — a characteristic Karoo town of Victorian church, wide dusty streets, corrugated iron roofs and the enormous sky overhead that defines the Karoo experience. The town sits at approximately 1,300m altitude on the flat Upper Karoo dolerite plains — the same geological surface that extends continuously from here to Victoria West, Britstown, Colesberg and beyond, only interrupted by the occasional weathered koppie or river drainage line.

    The 50km Hanover Plains Loop follows gravel farm roads east and north of town through sheep and game farm country — a classic flat Karoo gravel ride with excellent bird sightings (the Upper Karoo is one of the best areas in South Africa for the national bird, the blue crane, which grazes in large groups on the Karoo vleis). The R389 south to Richmond (55km) is a worthwhile extension: Richmond is South Africa’s mohair capital — a larger Karoo town with several excellent guesthouses, a good restaurant and a small fossil museum with Karoo vertebrate fossil specimens from the surrounding farms. The combination of Hanover riding and a Richmond overnight creates a satisfying Upper Karoo cycling day.

    Getting There

    Hanover is on the R389 between Richmond and Britstown. GPS: -31.0667, 24.4500. From Cape Town: N1 east to Three Sisters, N9 north through Hanover direction. From Colesberg: N10 south toward Hanover (120km).

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    Hopetown First Diamond Gravel Route

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    In 1866, on a farm near the Orange River at Hopetown, a 15-year-old boy named Erasmus Jacobs picked up a pretty stone that he used to play skip-rock on the river. His neighbour Schalk van Niekerk recognised it as unusual and sent it to Grahamstown for testing. The stone was identified as a 21.25-carat diamond — the Eureka Diamond, South Africa’s first. Within two years, news of the discovery had reached Europe; within four, Kimberley had been founded; within ten, the entire trajectory of South African history had been altered irreversibly. All of it began on a gravel bank beside the Orange River at Hopetown.

    The Route

    The 45km Hopetown Orange River Loop follows the gravel farm roads beside the Orange River and across the flat alluvial diamond plains surrounding the town — the same geology that produced the Eureka Diamond and the subsequent rush of prospectors who swarmed the riverbanks looking for diamonds in the gravel. The Hopetown Museum documents this history with a small but well-curated collection that includes the discovery story, the subsequent commercial rush and the social upheaval that followed. The museum is worth an hour before the ride — riding the historical landscape with context transforms the experience entirely.

    The flat alluvial terrain makes the riding technically accessible for all fitness levels — the challenge is distance and heat rather than climbing. The Orange River provides visual punctuation on the valley sections.

    Getting There

    Hopetown is on the N12 between De Aar and Kimberley. GPS: -29.6167, 24.0667. From Kimberley: N12 south 120km. From De Aar: N12 south 50km. From Cape Town: N1 to Three Sisters, N9 to Hanover, then east to De Aar and south on N12.

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    Aggeneys Desert Mine Gravel Ride

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    Aggeneys exists because of the Black Mountain Mine — a world-class base metals deposit discovered in the 1970s containing zinc, lead, copper and silver in extraordinary concentrations. The mine and its associated company town were developed in the early 1980s in one of the most remote inhabited areas of South Africa, surrounded by flat Bushmanland desert with no other settlements for 50km in any direction. The town has the characteristic self-contained quality of a mining company settlement — functional, well-maintained and entirely focused on the operation of the mine.

    For cyclists, Aggeneys is primarily significant as a staging point — midway on the Pofadder-to-Pella bikepacking route across the Bushmanland interior, and on the main desert route between Springbok and the Bushmanland towns to the east. The 40km desert loop around the town on gravel farm roads and the R358 corridor provides a day of straightforward but scenically distinctive riding through the quartz-strewn Bushmanland plains, with the mine infrastructure providing an unusual industrial backdrop to what is otherwise completely empty desert.

    Getting There

    Aggeneys is on the R358 between Springbok direction and Pofadder. GPS: -29.2833, 18.8500. From Springbok: N14 east to Aggeneys junction, then south on R358. Confirm fuel availability before extending beyond Aggeneys toward Pofadder.

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    Kakamas Vineyard Ride

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    Kakamas is the last town before the Augrabies Falls National Park on the N14 — a small Green Kalahari service town built on the Orange River irrigation scheme that transformed this desert stretch of the river into productive vineyard and date palm agricultural land in the late 1800s. The irrigation channels that radiate from the Orange River create a network of quiet farm roads that are ideal for flat, accessible gravel riding through some of the most unusual agricultural landscapes in South Africa.

    The Ride

    The 25km Kakamas loop follows irrigation channel roads through vineyards, date groves and orchards along the riverbank — flat, low-traffic riding in a landscape that oscillates between lush cultivated green and the ochre-red Kalahari desert. The Griqua cultural history of the area adds a layer of historical significance — Kakamas was established in 1898 as a labour settlement for destitute Griqua people under the Dutch Reformed Church, and many of the original settlement buildings remain. A northern extension toward the Griqua heritage landscape provides longer gravel riding on desert farm roads for riders wanting more distance.

    Getting There

    Kakamas is on the N14, 20km east of Augrabies Falls and 90km west of Upington. GPS: -28.7739, 20.6281. Kakamas Tourism: +27 54 431 0838.

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    Upington Kalahari Gateway Gravel Ride

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    Upington is the urban hub of the Green Kalahari — a prosperous river town of 100,000 people built entirely on the improbable fertility of the Orange River in the Northern Cape desert. The N14 between Upington and Augrabies follows the river through the most productive date palm and grape region in South Africa, and the 50km gravel and tar road ride from Upington to Keimoes is a revelation: flat, scenic, and lined with river islands (the Orange River here divides around dozens of tree-covered sand islands), date palm plantations, vineyards and the constant presence of the river itself.

    Keimoes

    Keimoes is the midpoint destination — a small town famous for its date palm plantations, the island chapel of the Keimoes Mission (accessible by a small footbridge to a river island in the Orange), and the extraordinary contrast between the lush riverine vegetation and the bare Kalahari dunes visible on the horizon. The Orange River Cellars near Keimoes is one of the largest wine cooperatives in the world and an interesting mid-ride stop.

    Spitskop Nature Reserve

    The Spitskop Nature Reserve just outside Upington provides a different kind of riding — a 12km circuit through a small game reserve around the dramatic granite koppie that gives it its name, with gemsbok, kudu and springbok visible from the gravel reserve roads. Good birdwatching throughout. An ideal warm-up or cool-down ride before or after the longer river journey.

    Getting There

    Upington is accessible by domestic flight (from Johannesburg, 1h20) or by N14 from Cape Town (860km) or N12/N14 from Johannesburg (800km). GPS: -28.4478, 21.2561. Upington Tourism: +27 54 332 6064.

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    Kimberley Diamond Fields Gravel Loop

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    The Diamond Fields Gravel Loop extends the Kimberley riding experience from the city’s heritage streets into the broader Karoo landscape that surrounds it — flat, accessible gravel road cycling through terrain that carries an extraordinary density of historical significance for a landscape that appears, on the surface, to be simply empty plains.

    The Route

    The 60km loop heads south and west from Kimberley on low-traffic gravel farm roads, passing the Magersfontein Battlefield — where on the night of 10-11 December 1899, General Methuen’s British column marching to relieve the Siege of Kimberley was ambushed by Koos de la Rey’s Boer commandos in one of the costliest British defeats of the Anglo-Boer War. The battlefield is a sobering and atmospheric stop on a gravel ride through this landscape. From Magersfontein, the loop continues toward the Modder River and back north, passing the remarkable Kamfers Dam on the return — a shallow pan just north of Kimberley that is home to one of the largest inland flamingo breeding colonies in Africa, with tens of thousands of lesser and greater flamingoes resident throughout the year.

    Getting There

    Start from Kimberley CBD — GPS: -28.7281, 24.7499. Download a Wikiloc or Komoot GPX track for the route before departing. Kimberley Tourism: +27 53 830 4117.

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    Prieska River Ride

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    Prieska is a small Orange River town with a copper mining heritage and a riverside landscape of date palms, fig trees and the characteristic Green Kalahari riparian vegetation that lines the Orange wherever it flows through the desert. The 35km riverside loop follows the Orange on low-traffic gravel roads through the most accessible cycling terrain in the area — flat throughout, with river views and Griqua heritage landmarks along the route. The Orange River Cellars cooperative in the Prieska area contributes to the broader Northern Cape wine route that follows the Orange from Upington to Prieska and beyond. A quiet, unhurried base for riders exploring the central Northern Cape interior.

    Getting There

    Prieska is on the N10 and R357, approximately 200km southeast of Upington. GPS: -29.6667, 22.7500. Tourism: +27 53 353 0022.

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    Sutherland Starry Night Gravel Ride

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    Sutherland is South Africa’s coldest town (temperatures as low as -15°C have been recorded) and one of the world’s premier astronomical sites — the combination of high altitude (1,500m), clear air, minimal light pollution and exceptional atmospheric stability that makes the Roggeveld Plateau ideal for observing the night sky also creates an extraordinary cycling landscape: high, open, windswept Karoo plateau terrain with horizons that extend to the edge of the world and night skies that stop riders mid-ride.

    SALT — the Southern African Large Telescope

    The Southern African Large Telescope is one of the largest single optical telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere — a collaborative international facility operated by a consortium including South Africa, the United States, Germany, Poland and India. Guided tours of the SALT facility (and the other telescope installations on the Sutherland hill) run daily. Evening stargazing experiences — using the auxiliary telescopes to observe planets, star clusters and nebulae — can be booked through Sutherland Tourism and provide the perfect bookend to a day’s gravel riding on the plateau.

    The Riding

    The Roggeveld Plateau gravel roads offer wide-open, high-altitude cycling through semi-desert Karoo fynbos — a landscape of extraordinary silence and space. The plateau is exposed and demanding in wind and cold (winter mornings regularly produce ice on the roads and frost in the Karoo shrubs) but the reward is riding that feels genuinely remote and expansive. The informal SALT Circuit provides a gentler 10km option for less experienced riders or as a sunset ride before an evening stargazing tour.

    Getting There

    Sutherland is 380km from Cape Town via the N1 to Matjiesfontein and R354 north. GPS: -32.3955, 20.6728. Sutherland Tourism: +27 23 571 1265. The road to Sutherland from Matjiesfontein is partly gravel — suitable for standard vehicles.