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Come home to your ‘bedrock’

The signboard at the entrance to Rooiheuwel Holiday Farm promises you’ll find peace if you lose your heart in the Karoo. As far as Philip Sackville-Scott is concerned, that just scratches the surface …

Rooiheuwel Holiday Farm, 80 km west of Beaufort West, is a place of old-school boer hospitality.
Here, you don’t just arrive, pay, get the keys and push off. Not at all. You kuier first, and you do it like it’s always been done − you sit in the voorkamer, you drink some moer coffee and you chat.
Not sommer with anybody, but with your hosts, Flip and Marge Vivier, owners of the farm on the lower slopes of the Nuweveld Mountains in the Great Karoo.

Unless you have arranged it beforehand, this is probably also a good time to place your order with Marge for farm-fresh Karoo mutton, biltong and boerewors that she will personally prepare in the farm butchery and have it ready for you when you leave.

Before they release you onto their land, they will tell you everything you need to know about the farm and its range of facilities.

The farm offers three 4x4 trails – the Aar Trail, the Tafelkop Trail and the Donkerhoek Trail.
It also has a number of roads for enduro motorbikes such as BMW GSes and KTM’s, five hiking trails and six mountain-biking trails that range from 40 to 172 km.

The Donkerhoek Trail, a new 11-km trail up the Nuweveld Mountains, was opened after our visit to Rooiheuwel.
Guests are also encouraged to explore all the farm tracks and riverbed routes.

The 13 000-hectare farm comprises two merged properties, Middelplaas and Boplaas, each with its own self-contained farmhouse. Boplaas also has a cottage and a shepherd’s Kliphuisie.

Middelplaas farmhouse, our base for the weekend, is about 6 km from Rooiheuwel reception, which is about 16 km off the R353 to Fraserburg. The well-equipped, self-contained farmhouse sleeps 14 and has a lapa, outside and inside braais and a rock pool.

The Aar Trail

Our first excursion was on the grade-3 Aar Trail. It’s a 7.5-km trail from Boplaas to a lookout point about 1 026 m above sea level, and back along the same route. It takes about four hours to complete.

We followed the signs east along a flattish grade 1-2 jeep track through low Karoo brush.
At the 4.2 km mark, we passed the Kliphuisie. Featuring a rock swimming pool and an outdoor shower, this renovated stone shepherd’s cottage will bring out your inner Fred and Wilma Flintstone − a “you can let your bedrock” kind of place. It’s rustic, but very romantic.

Bearing northeast after the cottage, we passed the turnoff to the Tafelkop Route 3.2 km on and reached the Boplaas farmstead after a further 1.9 km.

Apart from a fully equipped farmhouse, Boplaas has an outside flat and a dormitory-style shed for hiking groups. A large campsite there has an ablution block built of stone.

Following the signs, we continued, driving north through the farmyard. Beyond Boplaas, the trail became increasingly rough. Progress slowed as we picked our way between sweet-thorn trees, crawling through dongas, along side-slopes and through cross-axle obstacles as we crisscrossed the dry Hottentots River.

After crossing the river, the track starts climbing. Although it is steep in places, the well-maintained track has intermittent water-runoff humps minimising erosion.

A very tight right hairpin bend near the base of the climb requires precision driving. Unless you take this turn wide, your wheels could spin on the loose surface.

Once you’ve rounded the hairpin, you’ve passed the worst of it. The track continues to climb gently, circling clockwise to the plateau summit.

Once on top you could park and watch the neighbours’ game − lots of springbok and eland − or you could continue across the plateau to the northerly cliff edge, which is a great lookout and picnic spot.

Once you have backtracked to Boplaas, you could return to Middelplaas or drive southwards on a graded farm road.
The farm road circles back to reception. It’s a longer drive, but worth the detour as it allows you to explore other parts of the farm as well as dry riverbeds where you could see small buck such as steenbok and duiker.

Although drives up the dry riverbeds are generally safe, flash flooding does occur in the rainy season. Within minutes these non-existent rivers simply appear, making roads impassable for a few hours while the flooding subsides.

Tafelkop Trail

The next day we headed back to the Tafelkop turnoff on the road to Boplaas.
The 5.5-km Tafelkop Trail, 6.6 km from Boplaas, is a circular trail around Tafelkop. The grade 3 trail takes about four hours to complete.

From the turnoff, the track bears northwest directly into the Tafelkop foothills, and straight up a very steep and nail-bitingly narrow hand-built pass.

It continues in this way for about 4.2 km, only easing up about half an hour later into a slightly less intense 5 km climb to the plateau.

Tracing the contours of the mountain as it circles the summit, the route eases up somewhat once you’re on top. The zigzagging loop only allows you to see short sections of the road at a time, surprising you with features that appear suddenly. The first surprise while driving clockwise around Tafelkop is a turnoff to the left to a spectacular waterfall.
The second left turn, 2.6 km on, takes you to the southernmost tip of the plateau, offering extensive views south towards Leeu-Gamka. To make the most of the view, Flip is planning a self-sufficient bush camp along this mountainside track.

Just before returning to the trail’s starting point, we turned off on an alternative descent.

This 5.2-km track to Beck-se-plaas, the ruins of a farmhouse, is a gentle northwesterly drive down the plateau, back to the gravel road on the farm’s western boundary.

The trail ends at Beck-se-plaas, where you can turn left to the Rooiheuwel reception − where that mutton parcel is waiting for you.

Ultimately, Rooiheuwel is a choice destination for off-road adventuring. I’ll bet you a night at the “Bedrock cottage” you’ll be back.

Drive Out says: Great driving, fabulous vistas across the plains, great people and good affordable meat. What more do you want?

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

WHY SHOULD I GO?
You can drive along dry riverbeds, up mountains on challenging tracks to viewpoints that provide vistas over the Great Karoo. Along the way, you can see game too.

EN ROUTE
How long are the trails?
The Aar Trail is 7.5 km, the Donkerhoek Trail 11 km and the 5.5 km Tafelkop Trail is along the 18.9 km track between Middelplaas and Beck-se-plaas.
How long will I be driving?
5-6 hours per day, depending on the route and the number of sidetracks you explore.
Maximum number of vehicles: 20
Do I get a map? Yes, it’s on the website.
Will my car get scratched? Not too badly
Should I remove my running boards?
Yes, if you want to explore the rocky riverbeds.
Should I take a compressor?
Yes, you should deflate to around 1.2 bar.
Can I turn around halfway? Yes
Can we have a braai en route?
With permission, at selected spots

THE SURROUNDS
Best time to go? March-October
Can I take my family along? Definitely
Just for the day or the weekend?
Go for at least a weekend.
Are there ablution facilities for day visitors? Yes
Can I see game?
Yes; we saw eland, blesbok, springbok and a bat-eared fox.
The nearest town? Leeu-Gamka (61 km)
How do I get there
From Leeu-Gamka on the N1 turn north on the R353 towards Fraserburg. Turn right after 44 km and left after a further 13 km. Rooiheuwel is a further 3 km on this road.
The nearest fuel? Leeu-Gamka (61 km)

WHERE CAN I STAY?
Accommodation is in a farmhouse at Middelplaas or Boplaas, a cottage or a dormitory at Boplaas, or the remote Kliphuisie. You can also camp at Boplaas and at the bush camp if you’ve arranged it beforehand.

WHAT ELSE?
Should I take anything special?
Take a puncture repair kit for those long acacia thorns.
What else can I do there?
You can go hiking, mountain biking, birding and game viewing. It’s a great venue for photography. Night skies are clear for astronomy.

COSTS?
Trail:
Guests: R200 per vehicle for the first trail, R150 per vehicle for any additional trails thereafter.
Day vistors: R300 per vehicle.
Accommodation: R180 per person per night at Middelplaas and Boplaas.
R150 pppn at the Kliphuisie (sleeps four);
Hikers’ shed R80 pppn,
camping R60 per vehicle and R25 pppn (Inquire about discount for scholars.)

CONTACT:
Flip or Marge Vivier 
023 412 1669 or 083 387 6699;
pmvivier@telkomsa.net,
www.rooiheuwel.com