gravel

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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.

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    Calvinia Hantam Gravel Rides

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    Calvinia is one of the Northern Cape’s most charming small towns — a Victorian-era Karoo settlement in the Hantam (a Khoi word meaning ‘place of the red hartebeest’) surrounded by flat semi-desert plains and the distant Bokkeveld escarpment. In August and September, the Hantam Karoo around Calvinia flowers — not as spectacularly as the coastal Namaqualand, but with its own beautiful palette of orange daisies, yellow katstertjies and pale succulents across the plains.

    The Riding

    Two informal gravel routes are mapped from Calvinia: the 20km Outride for casual riders and morning explorations, and the 50km Hantam Loop for those wanting a fuller day in the plateau landscape. Both routes use low-traffic gravel farm roads across the Hantam Karoo — flat to gently rolling, always expansive, occasionally dramatic near the Bokkeveld escarpment where the plateau drops away to the Olifants River valley far below. The riding is quiet, unhurried and meditative — the Hantam is not busy, not rushed, and not performing for anyone.

    Calvinia is 60km south of Nieuwoudtville — one of the Northern Cape’s great wildflower destinations (see separate Nieuwoudtville Waterfall Loop listing) — making the two towns a natural pairing for a multi-day Hantam cycling weekend.

    Getting There

    Calvinia is on the R27 and N14, 460km from Cape Town. GPS: -31.4681, 19.7720. Calvinia Tourism: +27 27 341 8100.

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    Postmasburg Iron Ore Gravel Route

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    Postmasburg is one of the Northern Cape’s significant mining towns — located amid the world’s largest known manganese and iron ore deposits, the area has been the focus of major mining operations since the mid-20th century. For cyclists, the surrounding Kalahari landscape provides accessible gravel road riding through an unusual combination of industrial heritage and raw Northern Cape nature.

    The Griquastad direction ride (40km west on the R385) provides historical depth — Griquastad was the capital of the Griqua people in the 19th century, a mixed-heritage community of Dutch, Khoi and later settlers who occupied much of the interior Northern Cape before colonial pressure pushed them progressively northward. The Griqua heritage and the Kalahari thornveld landscape combine for a flat, accessible gravel ride of significant cultural interest. Witsand Nature Reserve (100km north) is the most compelling day-trip destination from Postmasburg for cycling visitors.

    Getting There

    Postmasburg is on the N14/R385, 230km from Upington. GPS: -28.3667, 23.0833. Postmasburg Tourism: +27 53 313 0073.

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    Colesberg Grassland Gravel Loop

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    Colesberg occupies a strategically important position at the junction of the N1 Cape Town–Johannesburg highway with the N9 and N10 — it is the Northern Cape’s most-transited town, and for travellers making the Cape to Joburg journey who want to break the journey with a ride, it offers an accessible entry point to the Northern Cape landscape. The 30km Doornkloof Loop on gravel farm roads is flat, accessible and provides a genuine taste of the Central Karoo transition zone — Karoo grassland, low shrubs, quartz-gravel plains and the big open skies of the interior Northern Cape without the extreme remoteness of the deep Kalahari. The Doornkloof Nature Reserve just outside town contains small Karoo game — springbok, gemsbok, blesbok — accessible on foot or by bike on reserve roads.

    Getting There

    Colesberg is on the N1, 690km from Cape Town. GPS: -30.7167, 25.0833. Tourism: +27 51 753 0678.

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    Victoria West Karoo Loop

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    Victoria West is a quiet Northern Cape Karoo town on the N12 highway, positioned in the Central Karoo’s fossil-rich interior between Beaufort West and Richmond. The surrounding Karoo plains — open, flat and extraordinarily spacious — provide accessible gravel riding through a landscape that feels genuinely timeless: the same Permian-era dolerite koppies (Rocky outcrops formed by ancient volcanic intrusions) visible to the Karoo fossil hunters who first mapped this region 150 years ago are still there, unchanged, on the horizon. The Central Karoo contains one of the world’s richest Permian fossil records, and the gravel farm roads around Victoria West thread through this geological heritage landscape on terrain that is accessible to any cyclist.

    Getting There

    Victoria West is on the N12, 590km from Cape Town. GPS: -31.4000, 23.1333. Tourism: +27 53 621 0085.

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    Springbok 182 Mile Bikepacking Route

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    South Africa’s most spectacular desert bikepacking loop — the Springbok 182 Mile Bikepacking Route circumnavigates the Namaqualand mountains and Bushmanland desert in a 293km multi-day adventure from Springbok through Goegap, Pofadder and the Namaqualand copper country. Designed for self-sufficient adventure cyclists, best ridden in September during the Namaqua Quest event period.