On your bike

Touwsberg is the kind of place you need to visit for the whole weekend. Remote self-catering cottages offer easy access to the network of gravel roads, jeep-track and 4x4 routes, plus you can explore forever along the game tracks mish-mashing throughout theTouwsberg ranges.

I headed in a westerly direction from Kyknet Cottage, cranking onto a steep 4x4 track into the Lootzrivier section (7.5km). An excellent map is available from reception, and the inclusion of topographical information on this makes it a cinch to orient yourself during the ride.

Follow the gravel road below the sandstone cliffs until you reach Fonteinskloof (9.1km), the only perennial stream during the sizzling summer months. It is fed from the Rehoboth Eye a few minutes upstream; this artesian borehole flows at an incredible 150 000l/hour, and is a great place to fill up water bottles.

A high-speed run past Rehoboth Dam (13.8km) bombs you down to the Wolverfontein Gate (15.1km). Turn left onto the Plathuis Gravel Road to for a circular route back to Kyknet via Touwsberg Main Entrance (23km). There are stacks of riding on the cards still, so split right to Bobbejaan Krantz at 25.3km.

Keep left again after the windmill (29.4km): you’re heading into the Mooikloof region and have a selection of 4x4 tracks, gravel roads and hiking paths to choose from. Take note that most of the paths are rocky and loose, so trust your balance as you bang into kopjes.

From Mooikloof (38.3km, depending on route choice) it is a fast downhill blast down to the Wolverfontein turn-off to your right (42.1km). Kyknet Cottage is just down the drag, making for a total distance of 45.2km.

One of the main attractions of Touwsberg is that you’re free to ride after sunset, an unheard of bonus in most reserves.