The Clarens 2 Blouberg 1,000 Miler

 Starting a ride in the busy Gauteng Province, where the Joburg 2 Blouberg route starts, is not for everyone. Husband and wife combination Jonette and Chris Lee, from KZN, opted for something a little quieter, and introduced the Clarens 2 Blouberg 1,000 Miler Route.

Nestled in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains in the Eastern Free State, the pretty getaway town of Clarens was the start this new 1,000 Miler Route.

They rode it for the 1st time on 5 April 2024, and their trip took 17 days, including a 2 day chill at the Aldam Resort in the Free State….Aldam and Gariep being the 2 big dams with resorts along the way for such a rest. 

Clarens is over a century old, named after the Swiss town of Clarens where former South African Republic President Paul Kruger spent his last days in exile.

The route is moderate in terms of toughness, with 10,404m of vertical ascent. The only big climbs are one or two prior to Sutherland, and then a major one up Bo Swaarmoed before descending down to Ceres. 

Click on the link below for the route map and downloadable GPX file.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/46639982

From Clarens, the route goes to the “Capital” of the Eastern Free State, Bethlehem, a town with everything that opens and shuts, including a bike shop for replacing any kit that may have been left behind.

But one mustn’t get too comfy with the services in Bethlehem. That town is probably the last spot for good coffee for a good while, the facilities becoming decidedly more “rustic” thereafter. 

 

From Bethlehem, it is on to the pretty little town of Lindley, named after Daniel Lindley, an American missionary who tried valiantly to keep the Voortrekkers on the “straight and narrow”.

Then, at the 170km mark, at the  town of Steynsrus, one of the many towns named after former President Steyn of the Orange Free State Republic, the route joins up with the Joburg 2 Blouberg route, thereafter following it all the way to Cape Town.

The route includes the historic town which was the 1st Voortrekker Republic, Winburg, and the country’s judicial capital and former Free State Republic capital of Bloemfontein. 

Bloemfontein is the last opportunity on this route for any bike parts or maintenance until Ceres near the end.

From Bloemfontein the route heads south-west on a long gravel road to Edenburg. Edenburg is a sad and decaying town, which was once a thriving N1 town until the N1 was rerouted to bypass it. There is a USave for resupply there, but don’t bargain on any restaurant, takeaways or accommodation. Those facilities are long gone.

This former N1 towns is very quiet these days, with abandoned facilities such as sports clubs …

…But as with many such “forgotten” towns… a church in the centre that still appears to be maintained…quite amazingly.

The good news, however, is that the towns improve quickly from here onward.

From Edenburg it is down a quiet piece of the old N1 highway to Trompsburg. 

Trompsburg has held up better than Edenburg, benefiting from being the headquarters of the local district council of the area, and has a great coffee shop called Snobs….worth a visit….and some good guest house accommodation.

It then passes the country’s largest dam, Gariep Dam,on the country’s longest river, the Orange River, before later making its way onto parts of the “Forgotten Highway” through Sutherland. 

Then there’s Colesberg, a busy 24 hour N1 town where food and accommodation is available around the clock on its outskirts….

The Engen 1Stop and Merino Inn next door the most convenient place for resupply and a sleep. Chris rates his steak at the Merino Inn as his best meal of the trip, while there is a Wimpy and KFC right next door for those who are in more of a hurry.

There are 2 more N1 towns with ample amenities, namely Hanover and Richmond, following Colesberg. These can also be useful towns at which to end a trip if one is planning a shorter ride, because N1 buses frequently stop here, especially at Colesberg.

After Richmond, then the route proceeds towards the Forgotten Highway from Victoria West to Sutherland. This was once the main route from the Cape to upcountry prior to what is now the N1 highway being built some way to the south….and can be said to run from Victoria West (home town of Blue Bull/Springbok legend Mannetjies Roux), through Fraserburg, Sutherland and the Tankwa Karoo to Ceres. This stretch of the route is really the “Karoo Proper”.

Sutherland is a well-known star gazing town, with major telescopes in the vicinity, and is also the town with the coldest recorded temperatures in SA in winter (and extreme heat in summer)

Thereafter the Ouberg Pass provides a spectacular descent down SA’s Great Escarpment into the Tankwa Karoo….past the famous Tankwa Padstal.

Chris and Jonette stayed over at a relatively new place called Da Doer, a new shop and accommodation some way prior to the Tankwa Padstal and seemingly very nice. So it seems that the challenging Tankwa crossing is becoming more cycling friendly from a resupply and accommodation point of view.

The biggest climb on the whole route is up the Bo-Swaarmoed Pass, before some more big descents follow down Swaarmoed Pass into Ceres. The descent down Swaarmoed towards Ceres, the 2nd biggest descent after the Ouberg Pass Great Escarpment descent is fast and furious on a nice tar surface.

This descent into the beautiful town of Ceres, in the middle of a fruit growing region, is a psychological lift, as from here the end at Blouberg is only just over 100km away, and there’s a lot of downhill and fast tar to the finish. The coffee and cuisine from here onward is good too. Accommodation in Ceres is ample and good.

Then it is down Mitchells Pass beyond Ceres, and then Nuwekloof Pass (formerly Roodezand Pass), one of SA’s first passes en route from Cape Town to the hinterland.

From then on the route is undulating to the finish, through the green farmlands and pretty Boland towns of Riebeeck Kasteel and Malmesbury to the finish at Blouberg, where one is greeted on a clear day with the most beautiful view of Table Mountain.

Bad weather can lead to very muddy roads in place, and Chris and Jonette did experience this on their ride in parts. It is thus good to note some of the route alternatives in the event of bad mud or even flooding of rivers that can block a rider. The 1st useful detour out of Winburg, where they used the old N1 tar road from Winburg to Winnie Mandela (Formerly Brandfort). Then they rode a part of the Bloem-Welkom toll road (busy, but with a wide shoulder) before getting onto the gravel from Glen Agric College next to the railway line into Bloem, the route used on the Forgotten Highways 1,000 Miler that we used to do as part of the (now defunct) 1,000 Miler Race.

The 2nd useful detour is to go the tar road from Victoria West to Loxton instead of the gravel route. Both are similar in distance.

It is useful to be aware of the detours, as parts of this route, which also forms part of the Joburg 2 Blouberg route,  have been flooded out in prior years.

Weather should be dry over the bulk of the route, bar the Western Cape from around Ceres to the end, with the inland region of SA being summer rainfall. The Western Cape isn a winter rainfall region, but from Ceres to the end is mainly tar, so mud becomes far less of an issue. The downside of winter is often westerly to north westerly prevailing winds that can often be against one or from the side. The winter inland can also be bitterly cold, with Sutherland being one of the coldest towns in SA.

Summer brings the converse, and severe heat can be the challenge. In addition, lightning storms inland can be a danger, while mud in heavy rain periods can be a challenge, especially up in the Free State where rainfall is perhaps higher than in the Karoo further down the route.

Below we include the distances between towns and major resupply points:

Town/Resupply Point                Distance (km) from Start            Distance (km) from Previous    Amenities

Clarens                                        0                                                                                                  W/F/A

Bethlehem                                   43                                                 43                                            W/F/A/M

Lindley                                        116                                               73                                             W/F/A 

Steynsrus                                     170                                               54                                            W/F 

Ventersburg                                  220                                              50                                             W/F/A

Aldam                                          243                                               23                                             W/F/A

Winburg                                       283                                               40                                             W/F/A 

Verkeerdevlei                               340                                               57                                            W/F

Bloemfontein                               411                                               71                                            W/F/A/M

Edenburg                                      492                                              81                                              W/F

Trompsburg                                  530                                              38                                               W/F/A 

Springfontein                                559                                              29                                              W/F/A

Gariep Dam                                  612                                              53                                               W/F/A

Colesberg                                      684                                             72                                                W/F/A

Hanover                                         766                                             82                                                W/F/A

Richmond                                      842                                             76                                                W/F/A  

Victoria West                                 927                                             85                                                W/F/A

Loxton                                           1016                                           89                                                W/F/A

Fraserburg                                     1112                                            96                                                W/F/A

Sutherland                                     1220                                           108                                               W/F/A

Tankwa Padstal                             1382                                           162                                              W/F

Ceres                                             1470                                           88                                                W/F/A

Wolseley                                       1484                                            14                                                W/F/A    

Gouda                                           1508                                            24                                                W/F

Riebeeck Kasteel                          1528                                            20                                                W/F/A 

Malmesbury                                  1550                                            22                                                W/F/A

Kalbaskraal                                   1564                                            14                                                 W/F

Melkbosstrand                               1598                                            34                                                 W/F/A

Blouberg                                        1607                                            9                                                   W/F/A 

Note:

W = Water; F = Food; A = Accommodation; M = Bike Maintenance