Frontier & Mist

Seven days over the roof of the Eastern Cape — 1,811 km, roughly 70% gravel, and five of the ten Ben10 passes.

What this route is

Frontier & Mist goes up. That is the simplest way to describe it, and it is the thing that separates it from anything else on offer in this part of the country. You leave the Indian Ocean on day one and spend the next three days climbing — through citrus valleys, across the Karoo frontier, into the Stormberg, and finally onto a plateau where the passes are measured in thousands of metres rather than hundreds.

It is the longer of the two routes at around 1,811 km, and it is the more remote. Where Cape2Karoo changes landscape every day, this one commits to a single arc: coast, farmland, Karoo, high country, forest, coast. The reward for that commitment is the middle of the week, days four and five, which contain more serious mountain riding than most riders will do in a year.

Roughly 70% of it is gravel, and the gravel earns its keep. There is fast farm road on day two, long open Karoo transitions on day three, and then two days of pass after pass after pass — Lundean's Nek, Volunteershoek, Ben MacDhui, Naude's Nek, Bastervoetpad — the kind of names that adventure riders in South Africa say to each other as a form of shorthand.

The shape of the week

Seven days, six nights, six different beds, and a deliberate structure: build, peak, descend.

Days one to three are the approach. They are long in kilometres — 205, 289 and 303 — but they are not technically hard, and they do the job of getting you from sea level to the foot of the high country while the country gets emptier around you. Day three is the biggest gravel day of the approach and finishes at Lady Grey, the last proper town before the climb.

Days four and five are the route. Day four is the shortest day of the week at around 173 km and unquestionably the biggest, because almost all of it is spent going up or coming down. Day five is the signature: Naude's Nek and Bastervoetpad in the same day.

Days six and seven bring you home the long way, through forest country at Hogsback and then a final 345 km run to the coast that is mostly tar and is meant to be. After two days on the passes, an easy road is not a disappointment.

Day by day, in brief

Day two crosses Addo Elephant National Park on the gravel R335, which means there is a real chance of sharing the road with elephant and buffalo. Ride it accordingly. It is the only day of the week where the wildlife, rather than the road, sets your pace.

Ben10 country

Days four and five run through the Eastern Cape Highlands region that adventure riders know as Ben10 country, after the Ben10 Eco Challenge — an unofficial ten-pass rite of passage that has done more for gravel tourism in this province than any marketing campaign ever has.

This route takes in five of the ten.

On day four: Lundean's Nek, topping out at 2,162 m and the highest point of the entire week; Carlisleshoekspruit; and Volunteershoek, also known as Bidstone. Ben MacDhui, the highest road-accessible point in the Eastern Cape, sits on the same day's riding.

On day five: Naude's Nek, the pass most people have heard of and the one they came for; and Bastervoetpad, which is widely held to be the most technical of the ten.

Two days, five challenge passes, ridden in the order the mountains put them in rather than the order a checklist would. If you have been meaning to ride these for years and never quite got around to organising it, this is the week that does it for you.

Where you sleep

Six nights, none of them in a chain hotel, and each one chosen because of where it sits rather than what it offers.

Night one is in the citrus country of the Sundays River Valley, an easy landing before anything difficult starts. Night two is on a working farm out past Tarkastad — genuinely remote, and the point in the week where the sky gets big. Night three is at Lady Grey, tucked in under the Witteberg. Night four is Rhodes, a mountain village you can only reach by gravel pass, which is the whole reason it is still what it is. Night five is Elliot, with the hard climbing behind you. Night six is up in the misted forest around Hogsback.

All six are booked before you arrive, breakfast included. You carry your own luggage between them in a rack-less soft pannier system of three 20-litre compartments — 60 litres in total, mounted low and directly to the bike. Nothing is moved ahead for you. On a route this remote, being self-contained is the point.

What "self-guided" actually means here

No vehicle follows you and nobody rides ahead. You set off when you like, stop where you like, and ride at your own pace.

Arranged for you: the route, loaded onto a Garmin zūmo XT2 fitted to the bike, with waypoints and fuel stops marked; six nights' accommodation and breakfast; the airport transfer; and a properly prepared KTM 790 Adventure carrying a tool kit, puncture repair kit, tyre pump and first aid kit.

Behind you: a 24/7 phone and WhatsApp line. If something goes wrong we dispatch a standby KTM 790 and a recovery vehicle to wherever you are, and recovery for a genuine mechanical breakdown costs you nothing. That backup matters more on this route than on the other one — on days four and five you are a long way from the nearest anything.

Is this route for you?

Frontier & Mist asks more of a rider than Cape2Karoo does. Not because any single pass is beyond an average gravel rider — none of them is — but because the mountain days are sustained, the surfaces change quickly with altitude and weather, and there is no short way off the top once you are up there. Bastervoetpad in particular is a pass to arrive at fresh and unhurried.

Riders must be at least 28 and hold a valid motorcycle licence (21 with a guarantor arrangement). We don't test or grade experience, but we do expect you to be honest about it — if the Highlands are more week than you want, Cape2Karoo is the better call and we will say so.

Maximum four riders per departure. You bring your own riding gear.

When to ride it

Frontier & Mist runs all year round. October to April is drier and generally the premium window — the high passes are at their most predictable and the long days give you room to enjoy them. The remaining months make a good trip too, with the caveat that this is high country and mountain weather does what it likes in any season. Tell us when you can travel and we'll give you a straight answer about what to expect.

What it costs

Per rider, seven days, all six nights and breakfasts, the prepared bike, the loaded GPS, the airport transfer and the full backup arrangement:

Identical pricing on both routes. A 30% deposit confirms the booking; the balance is due 60 days before departure.

Ride Frontier & Mist.
Tell us roughly when you'd like to travel and how many of you there are. We reply personally within 48 hours.
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