September 25, 2023 Comments (0) Uncategorized

BEN 10 CHALLENGE TOUR – RIDE REPORT

Ben 10 Challenge Tour:

The Ben 10 challenge tour gets its name from a local challenge to complete ten special mountain passes in the Eastern Cape Drakensberg Mountains in 7 days. We choose to complete them 4 days.

Nine gravel and one mountain road.

The Passes:

Lundeans Nek
Volunteershoeknek
Carlisle’s Hoekspruit
Naude’s Nek
Barkley Pass (tar)
Bastervoetslaanpad
Otto du Plessis Pass
Ben Macdhui (temporally closed and replace with Bokspruit Pass)
Joubert Pass
Tenahead Traverse.

Our tour started and finished in the quaint town of lady Grey.

Day one:

Lundeans Nek , Volunteershoeknek Pass and finally Carlisle’s Hoekspruit to the beautifully restored Rhodes Hotel.

Day two.

Carlisle’s Hoekspruit, Tenahead Traverse and return to Rhodes via Naude’s New. We attempted Ben Macdhui but the trail is not accessible and recent snow would have made it impossible anyway.

Day three:

Otto du Plessis Pass and Barkley Pass with a couple of extra’s like the stunning Balloch Pass for good measure. Our overnight the iconic Mountain Shadows Hotel.

Day four:

We saved the big one, Bastervoetslaanpad (bastards foot pounder pass) for last and ended with Joubert’s Pass that descends straight into Lady and the door of Comfrey Cottage, our lovely guesthouse.

Tour summary.

The Ben 10 challenge is a tough ride with some truly magnificent roads and tracks. In fine weather it’s a good challenge for the average adventure bike rider but be warned it can get wild in bad weather. We were gifted 4 brilliant sunny spring days and had an epic adventure. Sadly these remote tracks are no longer maintained by the state but thankfully the local farmers keep them in a ridable state. Personally I like them rough and it certainly means zero traffic on any of the routes.