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Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
12th Nov - Nelspruit roadtrip/breakfast run
- Thread starter Sankekur
- Start date
frikkieh
///Member
That's like 360km's - A very scenic drive if going via the Long Tom pass (Lydenburg).
From Sabie to Graskop is some interesting turns.
You will have to leave very eary. The Sun setting in the West and directly in your direction upon your return is somewhat annoying.
Here is the tool to measure (almost any) destinations distance:
http://www.distancesbetween.com/dis...toria-gauteng-to-graskop-mpumalanga/43609/r3/
From Sabie to Graskop is some interesting turns.
You will have to leave very eary. The Sun setting in the West and directly in your direction upon your return is somewhat annoying.
Here is the tool to measure (almost any) destinations distance:
http://www.distancesbetween.com/dis...toria-gauteng-to-graskop-mpumalanga/43609/r3/
Sankekur
///Member
The route:
So this is the route we took for our road trip:
In itself it is around 426km - the extra bits to and from pretoria on the N4 added the rest of the distance to get to almost 800km.
More in detail, we got off the N4 at Belfast (R33) and then took the R540, the road through Belfast is really crap, but all the potholes are avoidable luckily and it is not like you are driving fast to begin with.
The R540 is a bit on the bumpy side, though not too bad with a pothole here and there. We also encounters on piece of heavy farming equipment on the road which might be dangerous if not spotted in time or if it is around a bend (of which there are a couple). The road is not that bad though I would prefer to drive it only in good visibility as we had. Scenery wise I would say it is worth it and road wise (how the road is not the condition) I would say it is worth it (because of the bends mentioned above) a good start to the trip.
Following the R540 we stopped off in Dullstroom for breakfast:
We were actually looking for a place to eat (that we are familiar with) when I spotted a Seattle Coffee company, we decided to make u-turn to go there, though I actually thought this was a bit tragic as here we are a good 250km away from pretoria just to go to a place that is in pretoria as well. Well, got to the Seattle coffee co and it turns out that it is pretty much just a coffee bar, so we just decided to eat at the place next to it, the Dullstroom grill, which turned out to be a good move, service, location and food was really good. So in the end we went to a place that was unique to Dullstoom as we should have:
Our cars outside the Dullstroom grill:
After this we proceeded on with the R540 to lydenburg.
We stopped of there as well as we did with most of the places on the route but only really for refreshments and stretching of legs before the next bit of road. This was a road trip after all and the road being the important part here.
Our cars at filling station/ shopping centre just as you get into lydenburg:
After this photos got a bit scarce, my camera is a bit bulky to handle in the car and it is after lydenburg that the roads got really interesting, the whole reason we came.
We took the R36 out of lydenburg:
This was the first bit of road that include some mountain pass driving
This also shows the main part of out road trip. The R36 is a bit boring to start off with at at the end of it (end being the part where we turned off it) is had some awesome road, not sure what the speed limit was but the sign just said "!" which there was a lot of
We then turned off the R36 onto the R533, the plan was to stop at pelgrimsrust as well but we just blasted straight through it, we where having to much fun. As the R533 was just one epic piece of road that started off with some gentle bends (was a nice warm-up) and then gradually got sharper the further we drove, this was some of the best driving roads we encounter on the day as together with the awesome bends the road surface was also in a good condition and best of all it was quiet with almost no traffic. (Robbers pass is the name of this mountain pass).
After pelgrimsrust the road became a lot narrower with trees on each side of the road, but traffic was also a bit more, even though, this was still a awesome piece of road with lots of tight corners following one after the other, and luckily there are some points where you could get of the road and wait for some clear road.
The route after pelgrimsrust:
Stopped next to the road to rest and wait for clearance with the traffic:
The road and the surroundings:
We kept going with the R533 until the turn off onto the R532 that we took to graskop, we didn't stop at graskop but rather continued on with the R532 up to the first turn off onto the R534 which we took to God's Window, the destination of out trip, where we stopped off for a good while.
God's Window
I'll just let the pics do the talking here:
Leaving from God's Window we continued on with the R534 to where it meets up with the R532 again and took the R532 from there back to graskop to complete the R532-R534 ring. We then briefly stopped off in graskop just to discuss the rest of the route which was to take the R532 back out of graskop, same way we came in but this time we stayed on with the R532 to Sabie, where stopped off for a bit for fuel and to stretch our legs a bit.
From Sabie we took the R532 to up to the R37 that will take us back to lydenburg.
And what an awesome bit of road this is, the Long tom pass, awesome road surface and awesome road, just a bit on the busy side, but luckily has a good couple of places to pass so you will at least not get stuck. And you also pass the highest point you can reach by road in South Africa, something like 2100m above sea level.
This brought us back to lydenburg and the end of the mountain passes.
As we had come in with the R540 we though we would give the R36 a try on the way out, and this is the only thing I would do over of the trip as this piece of road is so uneven it actually start to get uncomfortable, not pot holes, just this insane bumpy road, really not nice, also wasn't much to see.
And on top of that you also end up having to go though one of the toll gates on the N4 that you don't have to if you go through when you go via the R540 and it also happens to be the expensive one, R60.
In terms of other toll, going from the N1/N4 interchange you get a R24 and a R40 toll gates and if you go past belfast you will have to pay another R60.
This was really and awesome trip and I would really recommend it to anyone that wants a nice day trip, we had lots of fun. I will definitely be doing it again in the not too distant future. The only thing I would not do next time round is I would just come back using the R540 and not use the R36.
(I would also just like to say that even though we went out for the fun and the sake of driving on brilliant roads we never drove recklessly and didn't endanger the lives of others or ourselves)
Thanks for reading.
So this is the route we took for our road trip:
In itself it is around 426km - the extra bits to and from pretoria on the N4 added the rest of the distance to get to almost 800km.
More in detail, we got off the N4 at Belfast (R33) and then took the R540, the road through Belfast is really crap, but all the potholes are avoidable luckily and it is not like you are driving fast to begin with.
The R540 is a bit on the bumpy side, though not too bad with a pothole here and there. We also encounters on piece of heavy farming equipment on the road which might be dangerous if not spotted in time or if it is around a bend (of which there are a couple). The road is not that bad though I would prefer to drive it only in good visibility as we had. Scenery wise I would say it is worth it and road wise (how the road is not the condition) I would say it is worth it (because of the bends mentioned above) a good start to the trip.
Following the R540 we stopped off in Dullstroom for breakfast:
We were actually looking for a place to eat (that we are familiar with) when I spotted a Seattle Coffee company, we decided to make u-turn to go there, though I actually thought this was a bit tragic as here we are a good 250km away from pretoria just to go to a place that is in pretoria as well. Well, got to the Seattle coffee co and it turns out that it is pretty much just a coffee bar, so we just decided to eat at the place next to it, the Dullstroom grill, which turned out to be a good move, service, location and food was really good. So in the end we went to a place that was unique to Dullstoom as we should have:
Our cars outside the Dullstroom grill:
After this we proceeded on with the R540 to lydenburg.
We stopped of there as well as we did with most of the places on the route but only really for refreshments and stretching of legs before the next bit of road. This was a road trip after all and the road being the important part here.
Our cars at filling station/ shopping centre just as you get into lydenburg:
After this photos got a bit scarce, my camera is a bit bulky to handle in the car and it is after lydenburg that the roads got really interesting, the whole reason we came.
We took the R36 out of lydenburg:
This was the first bit of road that include some mountain pass driving
This also shows the main part of out road trip. The R36 is a bit boring to start off with at at the end of it (end being the part where we turned off it) is had some awesome road, not sure what the speed limit was but the sign just said "!" which there was a lot of
We then turned off the R36 onto the R533, the plan was to stop at pelgrimsrust as well but we just blasted straight through it, we where having to much fun. As the R533 was just one epic piece of road that started off with some gentle bends (was a nice warm-up) and then gradually got sharper the further we drove, this was some of the best driving roads we encounter on the day as together with the awesome bends the road surface was also in a good condition and best of all it was quiet with almost no traffic. (Robbers pass is the name of this mountain pass).
After pelgrimsrust the road became a lot narrower with trees on each side of the road, but traffic was also a bit more, even though, this was still a awesome piece of road with lots of tight corners following one after the other, and luckily there are some points where you could get of the road and wait for some clear road.
The route after pelgrimsrust:
Stopped next to the road to rest and wait for clearance with the traffic:
The road and the surroundings:
We kept going with the R533 until the turn off onto the R532 that we took to graskop, we didn't stop at graskop but rather continued on with the R532 up to the first turn off onto the R534 which we took to God's Window, the destination of out trip, where we stopped off for a good while.
God's Window
I'll just let the pics do the talking here:
Leaving from God's Window we continued on with the R534 to where it meets up with the R532 again and took the R532 from there back to graskop to complete the R532-R534 ring. We then briefly stopped off in graskop just to discuss the rest of the route which was to take the R532 back out of graskop, same way we came in but this time we stayed on with the R532 to Sabie, where stopped off for a bit for fuel and to stretch our legs a bit.
From Sabie we took the R532 to up to the R37 that will take us back to lydenburg.
And what an awesome bit of road this is, the Long tom pass, awesome road surface and awesome road, just a bit on the busy side, but luckily has a good couple of places to pass so you will at least not get stuck. And you also pass the highest point you can reach by road in South Africa, something like 2100m above sea level.
This brought us back to lydenburg and the end of the mountain passes.
As we had come in with the R540 we though we would give the R36 a try on the way out, and this is the only thing I would do over of the trip as this piece of road is so uneven it actually start to get uncomfortable, not pot holes, just this insane bumpy road, really not nice, also wasn't much to see.
And on top of that you also end up having to go though one of the toll gates on the N4 that you don't have to if you go through when you go via the R540 and it also happens to be the expensive one, R60.
In terms of other toll, going from the N1/N4 interchange you get a R24 and a R40 toll gates and if you go past belfast you will have to pay another R60.
This was really and awesome trip and I would really recommend it to anyone that wants a nice day trip, we had lots of fun. I will definitely be doing it again in the not too distant future. The only thing I would not do next time round is I would just come back using the R540 and not use the R36.
(I would also just like to say that even though we went out for the fun and the sake of driving on brilliant roads we never drove recklessly and didn't endanger the lives of others or ourselves)
Thanks for reading.
looks like and awesome trip... also looks like you got lost
Sankekur
///Member
@Karthik: The roads are pretty exciting so you don't really get that tired, also the the towns are not that far apart about 70km was the furthest apart so it is not that bad. The worst it the bit on the N4, really boring.
@Yeah we really enjoyed ourselves. Why do you say it looks like we got lost?
@We left from lynnwood road over the N1 at about 6:30 and I was back home at something like 18:45, granted we didn't hang around at places for too long, if you want to do more sight seeing it might be better to get somewhere to spend a night I think.
In terms of cost from the N1 to the belfast there are two tollgates one of R24 and the other R40, so that is a total R128 toll, if you drive further on on the N4 there is another one for R60.
Fuel-wise: We refuelled at sabie, at that point my tank was just under half, when I got home my tank was just over half, so was much one tank used (e46 tank is 65l I think) Got an economy of 8.0l/100km per the OBC which over the 800 or so km is about 64l of fuel used so around R700 worth of fuel.
@Yeah we really enjoyed ourselves. Why do you say it looks like we got lost?
@We left from lynnwood road over the N1 at about 6:30 and I was back home at something like 18:45, granted we didn't hang around at places for too long, if you want to do more sight seeing it might be better to get somewhere to spend a night I think.
In terms of cost from the N1 to the belfast there are two tollgates one of R24 and the other R40, so that is a total R128 toll, if you drive further on on the N4 there is another one for R60.
Fuel-wise: We refuelled at sabie, at that point my tank was just under half, when I got home my tank was just over half, so was much one tank used (e46 tank is 65l I think) Got an economy of 8.0l/100km per the OBC which over the 800 or so km is about 64l of fuel used so around R700 worth of fuel.
went around in a big circle then ended NOT at home :rollsmile: looks like getting lost...
:rollsmile: looks like you were lost then doubled back
wish i could have come with... next time come past my place :rollsmile:
let me know when you want to come ill make a plan
