Roy's Rally

Take a drive in the Karoo with us along the R323. We turned north-west off the R62 which is about 10km before Ladismith (after Barrydale) and traveled on a tarred road for about 25km. Thereafter, a gravel road of about 50 km long is revealed in these slides, with backdrop of the distant Witteberge on the left at times and the Klein Swartberge on the right. Onwards then for another 20km on a tarred road to Laingsburg.

 

The R323 is an excellent way to link up with the N1 from the R62 and well worth knowing about. There are a few very sharp hairpin-bends which left my stomach in my mouth but  it is well sign-posted and nobody could say that they are not warned.

 A day after we left Laingsberg, my friend received a call for help from someone who had the misfortune to suffer two punctures along the road they were traveling and thus, no longer had a spare tyre. This was at 10 pm, when all businesses in the area are long closed and ordinary people are not inclined to go traveling in the lonely dark on rescue missions. They had to wait until sunrise before hitching a ride into town and assistance. 

We always have Tyre Weld with us as a back-up for such a scenario, as well as plenty of water. Very often, these areas have no cell phone reception and you do need to be prepared, even if only for a night in the car. And do keep your radio turned off, no matter how isolated you feel, as it is pointless arriving back at your car with the new tyre, only to find that the battery is flat!