The group stopped just inside the gate at Grabouw 4×4 to adjust tyre pressures.
We opted to do the eastern loop above the dam first, but quickly realized that the drought followed by a better than average rainy season resulted in certain tracks becoming no-go areas for our standard vehicles with road-biased tyres. We had to clear the track where water had washed some trees across it and had to back-track at least once due to some rather extreme soil erosion. The same rainfall meant lots of flowers and greenery though, and the higher we climbed the better the view, so nobody complained.
Next we crossed over the main access road to the western loop with its distinctly different topography, hoping to find the historic wagon wheel tracks left by some travelers many years ago. Unfortunately the back-tracking and road-building of earlier resulted in us running out of time, next time……!