N12 (South Africa)
Encyclopedia
The N12 is a National Route in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. It is maintained by the South African National Roads Agency
South African National Roads Agency
The South African National Roads Agency Limited or SANRAL is a South African parastatal responsible for the management, maintenance and development of South Africa's national road network.- History :...

.

Route

The road starts in George
George, Western Cape
George is a city with 203,253 inhabitants in South Africa's Western Cape province. The city is a popular holiday and conference centre and the administrative and commercial hub of the Garden Route.- Location :...

 in the Western Cape
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

 and ends in Witbank
Witbank
Witbank , also known as eMalahleni is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the eMalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for White Ridge and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wagon transport drivers rested...

 in Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga , is a province of South Africa. The name means east or literally "the place where the sun rises" in Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. It constitutes 6.5% of South Africa's land area...

. The road runs roughly from south to north, however, once it passes Kimberley
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...

 in the Northern Cape
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...

, it gradually turns eastward. Only the section between Soweto
Soweto
Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...

 and Witbank
Witbank
Witbank , also known as eMalahleni is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the eMalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for White Ridge and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wagon transport drivers rested...

 is a limited access dual motorway. The section between Klerksdorp
Klerksdorp, North West
Klerksdorp is a city and administrative district located in the North West Province, South Africa.-History:The city was founded in 1837 when the Voortrekkers settled on the banks of the Schoonspruit , which flows through the town...

 and Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom, North West
Potchefstroom is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University...

 is a dual carriage highway.

The Meiringspoort section in the Swartberg
Swartberg
The Swartberg mountains make up a mountain range that runs roughly east-west along the northern edge of the semi-arid Little Karoo in the Western Cape province of South Africa...

 between De Rust
De Rust
De Rust is a small village at the gateway to the Klein Karoo.De Rust is located at the foot of the Swartberg Mountain range between Oudtshoorn and Beaufort West...

 and Klaarstroom follows the gorge cut by the Groot River
Groot River (Eastern Cape)
The Groot River is a river in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces of South Africa.The Touws River tributary rises in the Matroosberg Mountains and flows east through the town of the same name and south into the Little Karoo, where it joins the Groot River...

 is a scenic drive crossing twelve old drifts
Ford (crossing)
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...

 (replaced by bridges today). From De Rust
De Rust
De Rust is a small village at the gateway to the Klein Karoo.De Rust is located at the foot of the Swartberg Mountain range between Oudtshoorn and Beaufort West...

one will cross the drifts in the following order: Spook drift, Boesman drift, Nooiensboom drift, Dubble Drif se Draai, Ou tol drift, Wa drift, Witfontein se drift, Ontploffings drift, Perskeboom drift, Wasgat drift, Eerste/Laaste drift.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK