South-Africa Motorcycle Tour – Wild and free
Travel dates:
17.4. -5.5.2027 (19 Days)
Heart of Southern Africa
19 days. 3,300 km. Two countries.
Kruger’s Big Five, the Panorama Route’s canyons, and Chapman’s Peak at the finish.
You ride. We handle everything else.
South-Africa Tour Details & Rider Info
Africa sets its own pace. If a road is closed, a border runs slow, or weather turns a mountain pass genuinely unsafe, your guide may reorder or shorten a lighter day to keep the group moving safely, but we always aim to ride the full route and hit every highlight listed below.
Welcome to the southern tip of Africa. Your expedition starts with arrival in to hotel, where the group meets for the evening. Welcome Briefing: gear check, route walkthrough, and a look at just how far Cape Town actually is from here.
Motorcycles are ready for pickup the following morning .
Highlight: Meeting the crew and realizing Cape Town is still nearly 3,300 km away. That is eighteen days of freedom, not a number to worry about.
Throttle south into the highlands. We leave the city on the N4 toll road before climbing onto the Mpumalanga highveld on the R540 and R555. The air cools and the farmland opens up as the road rises. We roll into Dullstroom, South Africa’s fly fishing capital, a town of trout dams, cool mountain mornings, and fireplaces even when the rest of the country is baking.
Ride: 271 km. Easy first day on wide highveld roads, trout country waiting at the end.
This is the day the road starts showing off. The R36 climbs Long Tom Pass, a historic route named after the massive Boer War cannon that once crossed it, before dropping into Sabie, a forestry town ringed by waterfalls, with Lone Creek, Bridal Veil, and Mac Mac Falls all a short detour off the main road.
From Sabie we continue to Graskop and onto the Panorama Route proper: God’s Window, a sheer 700 metre drop straight into the Lowveld with the horizon curving away below you, Bourke’s Luck Potholes, cylindrical rock formations carved by two rivers over millions of years, and the Three Rondavels, three huge round peaks standing guard over the Blyde River Canyon, one of the largest green canyons on earth. Lisbon Falls, at 90 metres the tallest waterfall on the route, drops right beside the road on the way down into Hazyview, at the gates of Kruger.
Ride: 240 km. One historic mountain pass, four waterfalls, and the canyon views you have seen in a hundred photos, except now you are standing on the edge of them, engine still ticking.
Park the bikes. Today belongs to the Big Five. Motorcycles are not permitted inside Kruger National Park, so a private open safari vehicle and an experienced local guide take over for the day. We head deep into the Lowveld bushveld and along the rivers where Kruger’s wildlife concentrates, with a real chance at elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion, and leopard, all in a single day.
Highlight: A full day inside one of the world’s great wildlife reserves, no riding required, just the kind of encounters most people only see on a screen.
A second country, new currency, same continent. We ride south past Nelspruit toward Barberton, a real gold rush town from the 1880s, then east via Badplaas to the Oshoek border post, one of the busiest crossings into the Kingdom of Eswatini. Just on the other side, the Ngwenya Glass Factory hand blows recycled glass into everything from bowls to sculptures, worth for quick stop. From there it is a short ride into Mbabane, in the Ezulwini Valley.
Ride: 189 km. One border, one glassblowing stop, and a whole new kingdom by lunchtime. Bring your passport, leave your assumptions at the gate.
A free day, Eswatini style. Spend it however suits you: Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, the kingdom’s oldest reserve, where zebra and antelope wander freely around your feet, the mountain trails of Malolotja Nature Reserve, or the craft stalls and produce of the Manzini market.
Highlight: A slower day in a country most riders never get to say they have visited, let alone ridden through.
A different road out than the road in. We head south through the Ezulwini Valley and cross back into South Africa at the Mahamba border post near Piet Retief rather than doubling back the way we came, so the group sees new ground in both directions. From there it is rolling highveld hills into Newcastle, close to the Majuba Hill battlefield from the First Anglo Boer War.
Ride: 260 km. A second border crossing and a genuine nineteenth century battlefield on the way.
Sandstone cliffs the colour of sunset. The N11 carries us to Harrismith, then the R712 runs straight through Golden Gate Highlands National Park, where the cliffs glow gold and red as the light changes and the Brandwag Buttress rises directly over the road. A stop at the Basotho Cultural Village gives a look at traditional Basotho mountain life before the day ends in Clarens, a small art town built from the same golden sandstone.
Ride: 175 km. A national park you ride straight through, and an art village waiting at the end of it.
Up and over, the proper way. The R74 climbs the Oliviershoek Pass onto the Drakensberg escarpment, resurfaced and in good condition, with the highest mountains in southern Africa filling the horizon on the way up. We are not taking this trip up Sani Pass, officially a 4×4 only route, so the descent into Underberg and Himeville keeps everything on tar while still delivering the full Drakensberg scenery.
Ride: 300 km. The longest riding day so far, and the reward is the biggest mountains on this end of the continent standing over your shoulder all afternoon.
Wide skies, open country. The Drakensberg drops away behind you and the land opens into rolling grassland. The R617 out of Underberg is a real riding road in its own right, a long, naturally winding stretch of tar with sweeping bends and one proper climb at Kingscote Cutting, a 4.3 km pass gaining 260 vertical metres with some of the best Drakensberg views of the whole trip, keep an eye out for mountain mist and the odd cow or goat wandering onto the tar.
It carries us to Kokstad. From Kokstad the N2 settles into a wider, straighter rhythm through the former Transkei, the homeland region where Nelson Mandela grew up, and into Mthatha.
Ride: 289 km. Open Eastern Cape countryside and a change of pace after the mountains.
The sea comes back into view. Out of Mthatha the N2 narrows to a single carriageway, winding through the rural hills of the former Transkei. It runs through Butterworth, one of the oldest towns in the Eastern Cape, then drops into the Kei River valley and climbs straight back out the other side, a proper break in rhythm at what was once the colonial frontier line. On the far side, the hills flatten out and the salt air arrives ahead of the first real Indian Ocean views on the approach into East London, South Africa’s only river port city..
Ride: 227 km. A working, winding rural road that keeps you honest, a river valley dip that breaks the rhythm, and the coast at the end of it, you will smell the salt before you see it.
Safari round two is coming. Out of East London the N2 climbs a long, cleverly engineered pass, over 500 vertical metres so smoothly cut into the hills that you barely register you are crossing a mountain at all, before dropping into Grahamstown, known today as Makhanda, a university town and home to Africa’s biggest arts festival.
From there the road flattens out completely, running straight and easy through the citrus country of the Sundays River Valley almost to the gates of Addo Elephant National Park, home to one of the great wildlife comeback stories anywhere, from just 11 elephants last century to a herd of more than 600 today.
Ride: 304 km. One smooth, sweeping mountain pass, then dead flat citrus farmland all the way to the gate, elephants waiting at the end of the day.
Round two with the Big Five, and this park does elephants like nowhere else. Bikes parked again, a private open safari vehicle and guide take over for a park famous for one of the highest elephant densities anywhere on earth, alongside buffalo, rhino, lion, and the endemic flightless dung beetle found nowhere else on the planet.
Highlight: A second, completely different safari and famously elephant heavy.
Into the forests. The N2 runs through the Tsitsikamma section of the Garden Route, crossing the dramatic Storms River Bridge high above its gorge, then about 20 km further on, the Bloukrans Bridge, home to the world’s highest bridge bungy jump for anyone brave enough to look down. The road cuts through ancient indigenous forest before rolling into Knysna, built around its famous lagoon.
Ride: 313 km. Rainforest, a very tall bridge, and one of South Africa’s prettiest lagoons.
An easy coastal run along the N2 past George into Mossel Bay, with time to settle in before tomorrow’s main event.
Ride: 107 km. A short, relaxed day before you get in the water with the ocean’s most famous predator.
Face to face with the ocean’s most famous predator. A short boat ride out from the harbour, full gear provided, and a steel cage in the water while Great White sharks move around you in open ocean. No diving certification needed, just a reasonable comfort with cold water and the nerve to look one in the eye.
Highlight: One of the most epic wildlife encounters on the planet.
The longest transit of the trip, and the last one before the Cape. The N2 runs through the Overberg region past Swellendam, one of South Africa’s oldest towns, before climbing Sir Lowry’s Pass, where the entire Cape Winelands basin opens up below you like a curtain lifting.
We finish the day among the vineyards of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, glass in hand, eighteen days of riding finally catching up with you in the best possible way.
Ride: 365 km. Farmland, an old Cape Dutch town, and a mountain pass that hands you the Winelands on a plate.
The most famous stretch of tarmac in Africa. We run down through Somerset West and along False Bay past Simon’s Town, then onto Chapman’s Peak Drive itself, 9 km and over a hundred curves cut into the cliffs above the Atlantic, with nothing between you and the ocean but a low stone wall.
Bikes are returned at our Cape Town depot, and the trip closes with a farewell dinner in a city that started four centuries ago as a supply station for ships rounding the Cape, and now gets to watch you finish yours.
Ride: 100 km. Africa’s most photographed coastal road, then it is done: 18 days, two countries, and roughly 3,300 km in your logbook.
No riding today, just breakfast and goodbyes. Table Mountain, the V&A Waterfront, and Robben Island are all close by if you want one last look before the airport.
Want to keep going instead of flying home? Plenty of riders extend their stay and explore further on their own, we are happy to point you in the right direction. However you leave, 19 days, two countries, and roughly 3,300 km are now permanently in your logbook.
Highlight: High fives all round, then everyone heads home, or onward, their own way.
What is included?
Not Included & Upgrades
Booking Process & Requirements
Note: We reserve the right to minor price adjustments. Final price confirmed closer to the date.
Africa sets its own pace. If a road is closed, a border runs slow, or weather turns a mountain pass genuinely unsafe, your guide may reorder or shorten a lighter day to keep the group moving safely, but we always aim to ride the full route and hit every highlight listed above.
How do you want to ride?
Frequently Asked Questions
Meet your leadguide Jukka
A global rider who knows these roads are something special.
Jukka’s passion for riding ignited at 15 and has taken him across continents , dirt trails in Cambodia, north-to-south through Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and around SEA, twice across Europe and chasing the twisting asphalt of the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal left a mark. The kind of roads, light, and landscape that make a rider stop and think: people need to experience this.
His professional background as a wilderness guide in Lapland means he brings the same calm, safety-first mindset to a mountain pass in the Drakensberg as he does to an Arctic snowstorm: read the conditions, protect the group, keep the adventure alive.
On this tour, you get a guide who treats South Africa’s roads, borders, and wildlife parks with the same respect and preparation as the terrain he knows best. Not a clipboard and a schedule, a rider who is as excited about a Great White surfacing next to the cage as you are.
Current Rides: Yamaha XSR900
The best roads don’t announce themselves. You find them by going a little further than everyone else.
Jukka Tähti
SFB Tour Guide
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