MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL IN South Africa

Climbing Sani Pass by motorcycle means crossing South Africa's highest mountain border: the summit on the South African side sits at 2,876 meters above sea level, right on the border with Lesotho.

The road began in 1922 as a track barely two meters wide for pack animals; the first jeeps only made it up in 1949, and since 1966 the summit has been the finish line of the historic Roof of Africa Rally, one of Africa's oldest off-road motorcycle competitions.

The last 9km before the border post are pure gravel with gradients up to 1:3 and tight curves along the cliff edge. Wikipedia doesn't soften it: the pass "has claimed many lives," and the remains of vehicles can still occasionally be seen along the road.

On the other side, already in Lesotho, the road keeps climbing toward the Black Mountain Pass, with views over the roof of southern Africa that explain the name of the rally that made it famous.

Riding Chapman's Peak Drive by motorcycle means crossing 9.5km carved straight into the near-vertical face of the mountain, suspended between the Atlantic Ocean and the cliff.

It was built between 1915 and 1922 and officially opened on May 6, 1922: at the time it was considered an unprecedented feat of engineering in southern Africa.

In the 1990s a rockfall caused a death and a lawsuit that kept the road closed for years; it reopened in 2005 as a toll road, and since 2008 it has featured rockfall shelters on the most exposed stretches.

The name comes from John Chapman, a pilot whose ship ran aground in what is now Hout Bay in 1607. Four centuries later, the bend that carries his name is still one of the must-ride postcards for any motorcycle traveler in Cape Town.

Riding the Garden Route by motorcycle means crossing 300km of South Africa's southeastern coast, between the Indian Ocean and the Langeberg, Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountain ranges, passing through Mossel Bay, George, Wilderness, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay.

UNESCO added the area to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2017, and that's no accident: Mossel Bay and Pinnacle Point hold some of the oldest archaeological finds linked to the origins of modern human behavior.

The indigenous Tsitsikamma forest, a mix of Cape fynbos and temperate forest home to nearly 300 bird species, marks the route's natural end at the border with the Eastern Cape.

It's the itinerary every international motorcycle traveler plans first after landing in Cape Town: mild weather 365 days a year, gas stations every few kilometers, and a coastline that never repeats its scenery over 300km.

Crossing Swartberg Pass by motorcycle means riding the masterwork of Thomas Bain, the most important road engineer of colonial South Africa, built between 1883 and 1888 using convict labor.

The pass opened on January 10, 1888, and was deliberately never paved: it remains pure gravel, with the same original dry-stone walls still holding up several of its hairpin bends.

It's also the only road access to Gamkaskloof, a valley so isolated its residents lived without roads until the mid-20th century and is still known today as "Die Hel" (the hell, in Afrikaans).

For South Africa's adventure riding community, it's THE reference gravel pass in the country: technical, historic, and without a single strip of pavement across its 24km.

Riding the Panorama Route by motorcycle means looking straight into the Blyde River Canyon (now officially renamed the Motlatse), the world's third largest canyon behind the Grand Canyon and the Fish River Canyon, 26km long with subtropical vegetation lining its walls, unlike its two more arid rivals.

The God's Window viewpoint drops the view 700 meters straight down over the forest of the Drakensberg escarpment, one of the most-cited visual drops in the whole country.

At Bourke's Luck Potholes, where the Treur and Blyde rivers meet, centuries of erosion carved perfectly cylindrical pools into the rock; a little further on, the Three Rondavels mimic the shape of traditional African huts in stone.

Along with the nearby Kruger, it's the most photographed area of Mpumalanga and an almost mandatory stop for any motorcycle traveler crossing the northeast of South Africa.

Climbing Long Tom Pass by motorcycle means riding 56km of curves up the Great Drakensberg Escarpment to 2,150 meters above sea level, the highest point on the entire Panorama Route.

The name comes from the "Long Tom" cannons —155mm Creusot guns— fired for the last time in this area by Boer forces during the Second Anglo-Boer War; a monument beside the road marks that final stand.

It's one of the favorite routes for South African motorcycle clubs riding out of Johannesburg or Pretoria toward Kruger: curve after curve of good pavement, through the heart of one of the country's largest planted forests.

The real enemy here isn't the terrain but the weather: thick fog over the escarpment is common enough to cut visibility to just a few meters with any sudden change in conditions.

Riding Route 62 by motorcycle means covering 504km between Ashton and Humansdorp through the heart of the Klein Karoo, the curvier, slower alternative to the coastal N2 highway.

The route crosses the Langeberg range through the historic Cogmanskloof Pass and runs through towns like Montagu, Barrydale, Ladismith, Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn, each with its own winery or distillery along the main street.

It's promoted as one of the longest wine routes in the world, with vineyards dating back to the arrival of the first Dutch settlers in the Robertson valley in the 17th century.

It's the favorite route for riders looking for more valley scenery and less highway: gentle curves, dry Klein Karoo temperatures, and a town with a gas station and something to eat every few kilometers.

Crossing Bain's Kloof Pass by motorcycle means riding the first great mountain road built by Andrew Geddes Bain, the father of South African road engineering, constructed with convict labor and opened in 1854.

The road follows the Witte River through a narrow gorge between Wellington and Ceres, with rapids, waterfalls and natural pools visible right from the bike.

Declared a national monument for its historic value, the road was closed for restoration work between 2018 and 2022, and today it's fully paved and open to traffic again.

It's the classic weekend ride for Cape Town motorcycle clubs: close to the city, technical without being extreme, and running through the same gorge that impressed 19th-century travelers.

Riding Prince Alfred's Pass by motorcycle means covering 68km of mountain gravel, considered the longest publicly accessible pass in all of South Africa.

It was built by Thomas Bain along with 270 convict laborers between 1861 and 1867, connecting the dry interior of the Klein Karoo with the forested Knysna coast through the Outeniqua Mountains — considered one of his finest engineering achievements.

It's named after Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria's fourth child and the first member of the British royal family to visit South Africa, in 1860.

Today it's a classic among South African adventure riders and mountain bikers —the pass is also the backbone of a 100km mountain bike race— but it remains virtually unknown to international motorcycle travelers just arriving in the country.

Riding Clarence Drive by motorcycle means following 22km of tight curves carved into the mountainside, with False Bay pounding the rocks just meters from the pavement.

It was built by Italian prisoners of war starting in 1940, during World War II, following the original proposal of businessman Gerald "Jack" Clarence, who gave the road its name.

On clear days, the view takes in the whole of False Bay, Table Mountain in the distance and the entire line of the Cape Peninsula — a postcard that rivals Chapman's Peak Drive on the other side of the peninsula.

Between June and November, much of the route doubles as a southern right whale lookout, as the whales come close to shore to raise their calves right off the same road.