The Komsberg Pass is located approximately 40 km to the South-West of Sutherland. It is a gravel road and gets very steep in places. It has a maximum gradient of 1:5. In wet weather (a rare occurrence) this pass will need to be driven in a 4WD vehicle. Avoid it completely in heavy snow as there are some sections with negative cross-flow, which could result in a rollover. One of the points of interest of this pass is that the official notice board at the summit gives the incorrect altitude (1721m). The correct altitude measured with a 12 satelite GPS reading is 1659m. Using the Google earth average measurement of 1656m makes the official board wrong by 65m.
Photo: Nossob.co.za
The pass starts at 1656m and descends a substantial 304 vertcial meters over 3,9 km to terminate at 1352m, producing an average gradient of 1:13, making this amongst the top 20 steepest passes in South Africa.
From the summit (Lunsklip) the road starts descending quite gently at first heading in a south-westerly direction. As the gradient increases, the road starts turning more into the south. Directly in front of you is the big peak called Skurwekop [1605m]. The road follows the contour of the mountain and some steep cliffs are visible to your left. These are called Klipsweetkrans (Stone Sweat Cliff). Further the highest peak of the Komsberg dominates the skyline with a summit height of 1712,6 meters.
The road then enters some very sharp corners to the right. This is known as Die Tonnel. The road gently turns more towards the south in sympathy with the small river to the east and the gradient eases off. The pass ends opposite the farm Komsberg. From here it is another 67 km to Matjiesfontein on the N1.