Garden Route Grand Self-Guided tour

SA - GardenGSG1 Our Garden Route Grand tour is our most popular road tour, offering you riding on some great tarmac, and taking you to and through all of the major sights and places of interest in the Western Cape. A great way to enjoy some serious touring in a relaxing style.

Tour highlights

The warm air and sun on arrival at Cape Town
Your introductory "orientation" tour of Cape Town and the world famous Chapmans Peak Drive on arrival
False Bay with mountains above you, fast sweeping bends, and the azure sea below you
The semi-desert region of the Little Karoo with endless horizons
Riding the huge and spectacular Swartberg Pass on a gravel road
Addo Game Reserve

Itinerary

Day 1 Depart UK.

Day 2 Arrive Cape Town. We meet you at the airport and transfer you to our Cape Town hotel. We suggest you rest, unwind, swim in the pool or catch up on sleep until 2 pm when we pick you up in a mini bus, issue the bikes and you are off for an 'orientation' tour of Cape Town.

Day 3 Cape Town – Cape L’Agulhas. Your first morning’s ride and you head for the exhilarating and spectacular ride round False Bay via Gordon’s Bay, Betty's Bay and on to the historic coastal resort and former whaling town of Hermanus, where we recommend you stop for lunch. The route continues through rolling wheat fields with long sweeping bends - ideal bike country. Finally you arrive at Cape L'Agulhas, and visit the southernmost point of Africa. Your accommodation for the night has a superb restaurant specialising in locally caught fish.

Day 4 Cape L’Agulhas – Knysna. Again traversing the rolling wheatfields with magnificent views of rich farming country you head for the picturesque town of Swellendam and then leave the coastal lowlands via the rugged Tradouw Pass, which crosses the Langeberg range of mountains. Immediately after the pass you are in the arid Little Karoo, where ostrich and tobacco farming are the main occupations. Passing through the area's main town of Oudtshoorn you leave the Little Karoo via the huge Outeniqua Pass which brings you back to the coastal plain and on to the famous Garden Route. Your overnight destination, Knysna, surrounds a tranquil lagoon which empties into the Indian Ocean through the turbulent waters of the ‘Heads’. Point Lodge.

Day 5 Knysna (rest day). We suggest you take the steam train which skits the coast on a fantastically picturesque route to George in the morning and visit the Blue Hills Wild Life Park in the afternoon where you will see buffalo, rhino, giraffe, zebra, kudu and possibly even leopard. Alternatively just laze around the resort's swimming pool or get a tan on the beach. Point Lodge.

Day 6 Knysna – Addo. Today, after an early start you continue along the Garden Route and pass through the Tsitsikamma forest, which includes stinkwood and yellowwood trees. Along the way you leave the main road to ride the Grootrivier and Bloukrans Passes on the twisty old road under the ancient forest canopy. Passing through the industrial town of Port Elizabeth you turn inland, encounter typical "African bush type country" with huge thorn trees, and arrive in Addo in time for dinner, which SA - GardenGSG3 is followed by an evening safari on trucks in the Addo Elephant National Park. Addo.

Day 7 Addo – Graaf Reinet. Heading farther inland you traverse the Olifantskop Pass and spend the entire day on magnificent roads with hardly any traffic in remote African bush country. Pass through the frontier towns of Cookhouse and Cradock before crossing the Sneeuberg (Snow Mountain) range via the Wapadsberg and Nauderberg Passes and finally descend to the historic town of Graaf Reinet. Before or after dinner (depending on the time of year), take a short trip to the Valley of Desolation to watch a truly magnificent sunset over the Great Karoo. Villa Reinet.

Day 8 Graf Reinet – Oudtshoorn. Today brings an entirely new sensation - passing through the endless flat plains of the Karoo. At times it is as if you are biking across the sea, vistas are so enormous, the horizon so vast and far away. Distant mountain ranges subtly change colour and only an occasional car or truck is encountered. Lunch in the little hamlet of Willowmore (there being no where else to stop!) and finally reach Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of the world. Die Oude Meul Country Lodge. SA - GardenGSG9to10

Day 9 Oudtshoorn (rest day). Either visit the world famous Cango Caves, an ostrich show farm, the Wild Life Ranch (cheetahs, lion, tigers, crocodiles and alligators), explore locally on your bike or just laze round the pool. Die Oude Meul Country Lodge.

Day 10 Oudtshoorn – Robertson. You recross the Little Karoo, again through wild and rugged country passing through Calitzdorp, Ladysmith and Barrydale arriving back in the Western Cape at Montagu, an attractive spa town with natural hotwater springs hidden in a mountain cleft. On leaving Montagu you pass some of the most contorted and folded mountain strata you will ever see and finally enter the fertile fruit growing area of Robertson. Your guesthouse for the night is on a long established wine farm in a gracious old homestead. Nuy Valley Guesthouse.

Day 11 Robertson. Today you ride the "7 Passes Route": some are fast and perfectly engineered, some tortuously twisting, others over 1200 m high. During the day you circle the Hex River mountains (where there is a ski club!), always on good tar roads. Nuy Valley Guesthouse.

Day 12 Robertson – Cape Town. Return to Cape Town via Du Toits Kloof pass and the main N1 road. Proceeding on from Cape Town ride the picturesque Cape Peninsular with the Atlantic Ocean on the one side and Indian Ocean on the other, visiting the penguin colony at Simonstown and taking lunch at Cape Point (don't let the baboons steal it!). Cape Town.

Day 13 Depart Cape Town. In the morning we suggest you either visit the famous shopping area at the Waterfront or ascend Table Mountain by cable car. In the afternoon return the bikes and we bus you to the airport.

Day 14 Arrive UK.

Total distance c. 3000 km

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Price includes: 11 days motorcycle hire, insurance, unlimited mileage, 11 nights 2-3* hotel accommodation with breakfast (guesthouse in Cape Town), airport transfers, maps and daily information pack; luggage storage; biker’s rucsac.

Price excludes: petrol, meals other than those specified, personal items. Security deposit ZAR12000-20000. Flights, travel insurance and tour extensions can be arranged through H-C Travel.

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Garden Route Grand self-guided tour

BMW F650GS

BMW F650GST

BMW R1150GS

BMW R1200GS

Passenger

Sgl rm suppl.

£1,345.00

£1,475.00

£1,485.00

£1,595.00

£795.00

£225.00