TAKE THE HIGH ROAD
Our convoy advanced inexorably towards its end goal. Three shimmering, low-flying objects stirred up high-speed dust devils as far as the eye could see. At an unspecified point on the R355 that connects Ceres and Calvinia, we crossed the provincial boundary to the Northern Cape entering the Tankwa Karoo. To the west, ominous storm clouds engulfed the Cederberg. To the east, the earth remained unerringly parched, with powerful rising thermals painting tell-tale stratus clouds across the sky. Three amigos posed in the middle of this beautiful, turbulent nowhere: the Volkswagen Touareg, Mercedes-Benz GLE400d and Volvo XC90 R-Design.
The route to the summit of Ouberg Pass mimicked a rugged weekend away that anyone with a luxury SUV could conceivably enjoy; although one somewhat removed from the comfort zone of the shopping-centre car park these vehicles will usually frequent. We turned off the N1 highway after the Huguenot Tunnel and took Mitchell’s and Theronsberg passes in our stride before swapping smooth bitumen for the corrugated gravel of the R355 and the hundreds of dusty kilometres that followed. The end destination was one of the most impressive gravel mountain passes in the Northern Cape. Draped along a ridge of the Roggeveld Mountains, the summit of Ouberg Pass promised spectacular, never-ending views of the Tankwa Karoo valley floor below. Assuming we
