Rouxpos, Karoo

Rouxpos is one of those little Karoo towns that has managed, despite the penchant for second homes in available little dorps within a couple of hours of major cities, to remain in relative obscurity.

You will not find it on the average map of the Karoo. The only people to really know of the town's existence are cyclists and 4X4 fundis who cycle the Laingsburg to Rouxpos route.

Rouxpos lies in the shadow of the Swartberg Mountains just off the R323 that branches off the N1 at Laingsburg. It is one of two wee towns through which the Seweweekspoort, or Smugglers' Route, passes. It also lies on the famous Freedom Trail, a race across South Africa from Pietermaritzburg all the way to Wellington in the Western Cape, which includes Die Hell, Rouxpos and Anysberg.

Actually Rouxpos is more of a settlement than a town, and people generally pass through it, as it hardly qualifies as a place to stop for a quick cuppa (around here, farms are lucky if they've got a connection to Eskom, nevermind a cute little village with a pub and a coffee shop), but everyone knows the Rouxpos Road just outside Laingsburg, or at least mostly everyone who lives around here.

The Freedom Trail is 2300 kilometres worth of, mainly, cycling across the Karoo. Once in Prince Albert, the trail has two options. One route takes riders to the Gamkapoort Dam along the Bosluiskloof Road and then on to Vleiland. The other takes a little more exertion up the Swartberg Park, into Die Hel. Thereafter both routes join through the Swartberg Mountains to Rouxpos and the Anysberg Nature Reserve.