Harley Trip - Graskop

Abel Erasmus Pass

This morning we filled up in Tzaneen town and next destination is Graskop.

Richard in the Distance

We followed the R 36 by recommendation because the R526 is apparently very bad.

For the first 30km we couldn't go faster than 60 kmph for fear of the potholes and then the overwhelming amount of taxis that stop any and everywhere on this road.

Once past that we were virtually the only people on the road again and had a magnificent ride over the mountains and through the Strydom Tunnel.

The Abel Erasmus Pass leads from Limpopo into Mpumalanga along the edge of the Blyde River Canyon, and is the gateway to the Panorama Route. From the Olifants River Valley, the Abel Erasmus Pass climbs up lichen-clad mountain slopes in a dizzying series of bends and curves.

We stopped at various lookout points and Three Rondavels and God's Window and then into Graskop to spend the the night.

God's Window

The town of Graskop is perched on a spur of the Mauchsberg at an altitude of 1,493 meters and dates back to 1837, when Andries Potgieter passed through with the Great Trek of the Voortrekkers in search of greener pastures in the north.

In his memoirs he mentions leaving the women folk on a "grassy peak" now know as Graskop, while he went down the escarpment in search of an ox wagon route to Delgoa Bay - now Maputo, Mozambique