Sani pass to be tarred by 2009
 

fyi: Sani pass to be tarred

News 24
2006-06-23 15:37







Johannesburg - The notorious Sani mountain pass between South Africa and Lesotho - one of the highest in southern Africa - will be tarred by 2009, The Witness reported on Friday.
Its website said a public meeting at Sani Pass Hotel was informed of the plans on Thursday.
The project to resurface and re-align the access road and the pass would begin this year at an estimated cost of R160m.
At present, the pass is only accessible to 4x4 vehicles.
Money for phase one, a 14km stretch from the turn-off near Himeville to the former Good Hope trading station, would come from the provincial and the national road departments. Phase two would extend over 11km, from Good Hope to the existing border post, while the final phase would see the tarring of the eight-kilometre pass to the summit.

Well, I suppose it might last 1 winter/spring then back to normal. Ride safe.

There has been talks about tarring that pass for as long as I can remember. At some point News 24 said that there will be a cable car to the top in place by 2006.

The interesting problem at the moment in South Africa is that the local governments are not spending their allowances for the 2010 World Cup.

I'd still be surprised if they tar this pass though. The 8km of pass is between the 2 border posts and people have been speculating for years who it actually belong to.

As for 4x4 access only... Some guy drove it in a 911 Porsche a few years back and minibus taxis drive it daily. I wouldn't like to drive it in a non 4x4, but more for the way down than anything else.

Photo of the pass from top is here: Photographer SA - Photography Portfolio for Dawie du Plessis

No chance
 

Me and the wife were there 6 wks ago on our XT,s and the road to the Sani pass hotel is being graded in preperation for tarmac but there is no work taking place on the pass itself and the local feeling is that it won,t happen

End of May 2009 the part under construction stretched from Himeville just over 20kms towards the border. This is roughly halfway towards the SA border post. The last 20kms to the police station are untouched, as is the actual Sani Pass track from the border post to Sani Top.

IMHO there is no real necessity to carry on with the roadworks, since the eastern and southern parts of Lesotho are very sparsely populated, no mining, no business - nothing. Lesotho is far easier accessed from the north or the west (Maseru).

It will be sad if they do indeed tar the Sani Pass. It has always been known as THE road to ride if you have a Duelsports bike.

I've done it twice and felt sort of proud of the 'acheavement'. My proudness was short-lived when I read an article about a guy riding up and down the pass with his hard-tail Harley Davidson!
Even so, I have good memories of that pass, and very few camping spots in the world is as wonderfull as the at the top of the Sani Pass!

I realy hope they dont do it. . . . . .

Johan