I ALSO WANT TO GO!

You’ll need a permit – get it through Namakwa 4x4 Exploration, an organisation set up by the Northern Cape Tourism Board in Springbok. The price of the permit is determined by the number of nights you will spend on the route and how much you want to see of the route:

It costs R450 per vehicle to drive the first section between Pella and Vioolsdrif. There are three campsites – Groot Melkboom, Ramansdrif and Kamgab – and each costs R200 pn per vehicle.

Then you have to pay a further R450 per vehicle to drive the second section between Vioolsdrif and Brandkaros. Once again, the two campsites – Spitskloof and Bakkrans – each cost R200 pn per vehicle.

Driving the entire route and sleeping in every campsite will therefore cost you a hefty R1 900. We paid R1 100 for the two sections and one night at Ramansdrif. (Tierkloof is excluded.) According to Namakwa 4x4 Exploration, the revenue from permit sales is used to maintain the route and to uplift the community.

Do note that the vast majority of the route follows public roads maintained by municipalities, but there are also farm roads that you drive with the permission of farmers. None of the off-road sections are specifically designed for 4x4 vehicles, but many of them are too challenging for a sedan or a two-wheel drive bakkie. Moreover, the roads don’t actually appear to be maintained and they are therefore only drivable in off-road vehicles. The campsites have no ablution facilities. Visitors are required to remove all their refuse – and that of others – as well as fix damaged bits of the trail.

namakwa4x4.co.za info@namakwa4by4.co.za 081 873 9043 (Wilma James)

ANCIENT HISTORY. The second section of the trail is more challenging than the first because you have to deal with soft sand. Helskloof’s rock art, also known as petroglyphs, were carved by the Khoekoen and depict animals and fantastical dream scenes not u