This ride report is about a trip through Barrington Pass to Buffels Bay and the Riverdeck Restaurant on the banks of the river!
The plan for this particular day was to ride a mountain pass, Barrington Pass, that had recently been highlighted in a newsletter from Mountain Passes of South Africa. It had rained the night before and on approaching the tarred Rheenendal turnoff a decision needed to be made on the ‘fly’. A wet gravel road or the tar road to Rheenendal? Well, the gravel Phantom Pass won on the day! One thing is certain – our bike rides around the Garden Route are anything but dull!
After Phantom Pass – it was tar all the way to Homtini Pass (have you noticed that all of our rooms at Amakaya Backpackers are named for local mountain passes?)
After Homtini pass, we turned off to Barrington Pass just before Karatara Pass. Barrington Pass is a winding road with good scenery. The 7 km pass went by too quickly and with no specific time schedule I convinced myself to go back up and down again. Lovely!
Once back on the N2, we decided to stop off in Buffels Bay where my other half and I had stopped while driving around in the car just the week before. We rode on right to the end of the caravan park (which was closed, but no problem on a bike). Just find the gap!
The view and rocks right at the end of the caravan park is amazing!! The highlight of the day’s ride so far.
By now it was after 1:30pm and my stomach was doing a hunger dance. On the way back to the N2 this sign brought me to a stop. My stomach screamed “YES” and we stopped in at the Riverdeck Restaurant. What a fantastic place right on the banks of the river, with a lovely outdoor area. Canoeing, paddling or just chilling on or next to the water!
Inside the Riverside Restaurant was so quaint, with an old coal stove brewing pots of coffee and relaxed seating if you don’t want a table – while outside people were enjoying the river, despite the chilliness of the day! Lunch was great – served on tin plates and washed down with a cold Heineken!
Now that my hungry stomach has satisfied, it was time to head back to Plett after an interesting day’s riding! An interesting point, is that you don’t have to have a motorbike to do this route – it can be done by car either from Knysna or Plett and makes a great day trip while staying in Plett!
Just another of the many things to do while in the area.