Trails with camping around Knysna/plett

[Oom Walter]

Howzit gents!
I'm heading down to Knysna in 3 weeks to go cheer up a friend of mine going through a pretty rough divorce that came out of nowhere.
I figured it could be good for him if I drive down from JHB with a couple of our friends and go do a camping/4x4 weekend in the area.
Any recommendations for trails that can be done in a day, or trails that have an overnight stop?
Fishing spots are a lekker bonus too!
I'll do my own research this evening, but I thought I should pro-actively post for help on here.
All help massively appreciated!!!

[Andrew Rodrigues]

Try Burchmore 4x4, Katot Meyer, did this trail a few years ago then closed for a while to do repairs but may be open again, De Vlugt area.

[Cats]

Try Burchmore 4x4, Katot Meyer, did this trail a few years ago then closed for a while to do repairs but may be open again, De Vlugt area.

You can also try the Ox wagon route run by Louvain Farm close to Uniondale. The trip basically goes from Uniondale to Wilderness somewhere if I recall. I did it many years ago and we overnighted on the trail.

CATS

[Oom Walter]

Thanks for the advice Gents!
We will aim to do the following:
Start at Knysna on Friday morning, drive up prince alfred's pass to Pietersrivier nature reserve and take the oxwagon trail there.
Camp overnight at the reserve
Drive through to Louvain Guest farm the following morning and go do their ox wagon trail & either overnight at the farm or on the trail.
The following morning we will take montagu pass down to george and then hop on the seven passes road all the way to rheenendal.

I did call the municipality to find out whether these are open again, and according to the lady on the switchboard of the roads dept they did finish the roadworks on both passes to the extent that it can be driven again. She will confirm soon, but it seems promising and like one hell of a trip!

[JanB]

No, both Montagu pass and the first section of seven passes from George remain closed. You can start 7P from Hoekwil.

[Oom Walter]

Thanks for letting me know.
Yeah she just got back to me confirming the same info.
Oh well, it's still a lekker section to drive out!

[JanB]

You can still drive towards the top of Montagu pass from the north. I am not sure exactly where they closed the road. A stop at Harold Wines should be worth it.
7P is still very much worth it.

[Oom Walter]

Just to report on the trip:
We had a lekker long drive down to knysna on thursday, and arrived at 1:30am.
Dropped off the girls in leisure isle and slept over at some friends.

From there the next morning we took the R339 to De Vlugt and then Prince Alfred's pass to Uniondale. For a joburger it's a truly awesome pass. We naturally stopped at Angie's G-spot for a dop as well.

At uniondale we drove towards George and then took a right onto Kamanassie Road, going all along the river.

From there we went to Louvain Guest Farm and set up camp.

Day 3 we drove the 4x4 trail to the top of the mountain, waited 5 mins for the clouds to clear up and got treated with a spectacular 360° view.

We hiked down 10km and back on the rest of the trail since the floods rendered it undriveable. I really hope they do repair the road at some point.

My friends weren't too used to 20km of hiking so instead of doing another hike the following day we went down to wilderness and gave herold wines a quick look on the way.

There we decided to go have some fun at Paradise 4x4.
A very lekker course, and also quite challenging for someone who has never done sand driving.

After many attempts at desert dog and fugly we completed the entire course. We were on route to 7 passes road. But then I decided we should give desert dog one more go...

We saw some MASSIVE tracks, thought nothing of it and proceded to bottom out in a very narrow section of the obstacle, leading to 2 hours of playing in the sand. 5 year old me would have loved it!

By that time it was nearly 16:00. We decided to give 7 passes road a miss, since I don't have an adequate setup to drive those routes confidently in the dark.

We headed back to knysna, stopped at the heads and coney glen beach, followed by a couple of drafts at a pub.

All in all an amazing trip, leaving us with a few more boxes to tick off on our next visit! What a great part of the country!

[Daniek]

Just to report on the trip:
We had a lekker long drive down to knysna on thursday, and arrived at 1:30am.
Dropped off the girls in leisure isle and slept over at some friends.

From there the next morning we took the R339 to De Vlugt and then Prince Alfred's pass to Uniondale. For a joburger it's a truly awesome pass. We naturally stopped at Angie's G-spot for a dop as well.

At uniondale we drove towards George and then took a right onto Kamanassie Road, going all along the river.

From there we went to Louvain Guest Farm and set up camp.

Day 3 we drove the 4x4 trail to the top of the mountain, waited 5 mins for the clouds to clear up and got treated with a spectacular 360° view.

We hiked down 10km and back on the rest of the trail since the floods rendered it undriveable. I really hope they do repair the road at some point.

My friends weren't too used to 20km of hiking so instead of doing another hike the following day we went down to wilderness and gave herold wines a quick look on the way.

There we decided to go have some fun at Paradise 4x4.
A very lekker course, and also quite challenging for someone who has never done sand driving.

After many attempts at desert dog and fugly we completed the entire course. We were on route to 7 passes road. But then I decided we should give desert dog one more go...

We saw some MASSIVE tracks, thought nothing of it and proceded to bottom out in a very narrow section of the obstacle, leading to 2 hours of playing in the sand. 5 year old me would have loved it!

By that time it was nearly 16:00. We decided to give 7 passes road a miss, since I don't have an adequate setup to drive those routes confidently in the dark.

We headed back to knysna, stopped at the heads and coney glen beach, followed by a couple of drafts at a pub.

All in all an amazing trip, leaving us with a few more boxes to tick off on our next visit! What a great part of the country!

7 Passes were closedwhen we wanted to do it a couple of weeks ago. We wanted to enter crom George side.

[Oom Walter]

Currently it seems 7 passes is only accessible from hoekwil. I guess it's more like 5 passes then haha.