Ramatsilitso Gate to Telle Bridge

[Opsmedic]

Last week I did my regular trip to the Maluti Mountains. Started Ramatsilitso Gate and worked my way to Qhacha’s Nek. The road up to Ramatsilitso Gate is very bad and should be avoided in the dark and driven very cautiously in the wet. I was lucky it was dry but the donga’s washed out in the road itself makes going slow and dangerous. Most of the way was low range to climb up and over rock banks in the road.

Once you have passed the plantation at the bottom of the pass the road to the main tar road is in fair condition. They are working on it but I am not so sure that the grader operator is well trained because he is putting some weird cambers on sections of the road. These sections will be fun when they are wet.

The road up to Qhacha’s Nek is fair just busy with all types of traffic and beware of slow moving vehicles. Seems there a lot of female drivers that prefer little Chevy Sparks’ and the like and they literally crawl along in 1st gear.

From there I travelled through Mount Fletcher to Maclear and turned off on the R 396 to Naude’s Nek. The road is in a good condition and they are working on it. Pot River Pass is fine when it is dry but in the wet it will be challenging to say the least. Climbing up Naude’s Nek the road is fair to good once over the top it gets better all the way to Rhodes.

From Rhodes to Barkly East the road is fine but again busy with a fair amount of traffic going through to Rhodes and Tiffindell.

From Barkly East I turned off onto the DR 03214 towards Lundeans Nek. The road is in good condition all the way to the top of Lundeans Nek. I was surprised to see the road was graded since my last trip and was in a good condition all the way to Telle Bridge. Even got some Corsa bakkie’s coming up the pass with no hassle. There is however still some rock banks in the road that one has to slow down for but overall, the road is fair to good in some spots.