{"id":14027,"date":"2021-10-13T12:34:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T11:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2021\/10\/13\/ride-routes-bike-packing-from-stanford-to-agulhas-r8324\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T18:59:50","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T18:59:50","slug":"ride-routes-bike-packing-from-stanford-to-agulhas-r8324","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/ride-routes-bike-packing-from-stanford-to-agulhas-r8324\/","title":{"rendered":"Ride Routes: Bike Packing from Stanford to Agulhas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Western Cape has some pretty epic gravel roads but few compare with the Overberg area. With all the farms in the area, there are hundreds of kilometers of gravel roads meandering through farmlands that are not so far off the beaten track as you might think, with lush canola fields bursting with colour in winter, it is a ride for the senses.\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tThis ride route feature is sponsored by GWM<\/strong>
\n\tWe took their P Series Commercial Double Cab bakkie out for the trip, more on the car a little later.
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\n\tThere are many good spots to start from but perhaps the most central is the little town of Stanford. Roughly two and a half hours drive from Cape Town, Stanford for me is the gateway to the best gravel in the Overberg area. For this short weekender bike packing trip we would ride from Stanford to Cape Agulhas and then back again the next day.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the drive from Cape Town, we parked at the Ou Muel coffee shop (it\u2019s also safe to leave your car here) and after a coffee and croissant, we were on our way. As I said earlier, Stanford is the gateway to the best gravel roads that the Overberg has to offer, so there are really a lot of different routes you can take to get to Agulhas. It all depends on how far you want to ride and where you want to stop for lunch etc.\n<\/p>\n

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\n\tFrom Stanford, it is a short tar section on the R326 to link up with the gravel road that takes you down to Elim, a tiny little town that was established in 1824 by German missionaries as a Moravian mission station. There isn\u2019t much here by way of restaurants but there are some corner cafes with coke, steri-stumpie, and chips. Elim is just short of halfway but it has the majority of the climbing in the route. After Elim, there is one more long climb that maxes out at 9.2% but after you hit the 52km mark it is pretty much all flat as you make your way to Agulhas.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 105km route might only have 1200m of climbing but you do the majority of it in the first 45km (or the last 45km on your way back the next day). What makes riding in this area tricky is also the wind, as you might know, it can get insanely windy here so depending on the wind direction, chances are pretty good you will have a strong headwind one day and a strong tailwind the next day. The area close to Agulhas is very flat and open so there isn\u2019t much to shelter the road from the wind, which can absolutely hammer you as you fight your way towards the coast. The prevailing wind is a South Easter which should mean you will have a nice tailwind on the way home.\n<\/p>\n

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