Mazda MX5 Owners Club Gauteng: Scenic Drives South Africa

Scenic Drives South Africa. Robber's Pass Mpumalanga.

Robber's Pass connects the little town of Pilgrim's Rest to Ohrigstad, a long tarred road rich in history with a particularly scenic landscape, and one the best drives through Mpumalanga.

Starting in the historic town of Pilgrim's Rest, the birthplace of South Africa's gold rush, with a history of fortune seeking gold miners and robbers to add to the allure of the pass.

Robber's Grave, in the Cemetery above the town, a thief was caught pilfering in another mans tent he was lynched and died and was buried in the cemetery above town. The Robbers Grave is facing north/south as opposed to east/west for the other graves. However he was not the robber after whom the pass is named. Wonder what he was trying to pilfer from the tent ?

The pass was named after some notorious highwaymen. A stage coach was robbed of £10 000 worth of gold and no-one was convicted or even caught. A second robbery occurred in the same spot, 13 years later, for which Tommy Dennison was convicted and jailed. When he returned to Pilgrim's Rest after serving his sentence, he started the Highwayman's Garage. Who said crime doesn't pay?

The pass on the R553, begins on the northern edge of Pilgrim's Rest and leads in a north-westerly direction into the mountains, a distance of 26 km, at an average gradient of 1:5, driving speed is between 40 and 100 km an hour. Summiting at 1790m a rise of 545m above Pilgrims Rest, makes this a fantastic drive, well suited to the MX5, with numerous hairpin bends and sweeping curves, absolute driving bliss best enjoyed top down! At the end of the pass, if you turn left you head towards Lydenburg and if right to Ohrigstad, be warned this road is horribly pot-holed, so best make an about turn and enjoy this ride all over again! Ensure you check out the beautiful scenery on your return trip

Drives like these are like life, it has its ups and downs, twists, bends and turns, but that's the Beauty of it all! Enjoy the pic`s below and you can easily see why this is such a scenic drive!

Please ensure you do this drive in clear weather conditions, pretty hairy if there is mist about!

You will pass some interesting viewpoints along the way, The Morgenzon Plantation famous for the rarely seen wild horses, the Jock of the Bushveld monument, Mount Sheba Nature Reserve, Crystal Springs resort, Alanglade house, which was the mine manager of Transvaal Gold Mines residence.

In order to get to Robbers Pass, one travels through some other spectacular drives. From Lydenburg through the Long Tom Pass into the town of Sabie and onto Graskop passing waterfalls and magnificent viewpoints. Turn off the Graskop road to Pilgrims Rest and a twisty turny stretch of road down into the Pilgrims Rest valley is challenging enough. Stop for refreshments before heading off to Robbers Pass, this is without doubt one of the gems of scenic drives in SA.