Swartzberg Pass
Day 58
The Swartzberg Pass is part of the Garden Route, also known as the drive from Still Bay to Plattenburg Bay in south central South Africa. The Swartzberg Pass starts at a narrow gorge and twists its way up a 4,500 foot mountain and back down. Most of the Pass’s landscape is scrubland but is still an amazing drive. One I was glad we experienced.
The Swartzberg Pass was built by Thomas Bain a brainy engineer. It took him and his workers seven years to build the pass. Those seven years were from 1881 to 1888. The pass remains the way it was since that time.
The road up the mountain is a dirt road with many twists and turns. You have to be careful though the roads are right on the side of the mountain, it’s a steep drop. The only thing stopping you and your car from falling off the single lane road is a little rock wall.
We didn’t see many trees on the mountain but when we did they were little patches of about thirty. This was different than most mountains though, there are normally a lot more trees.
When we reached the summit of the mountain we saw a silly sign saying you are at “Die Top” not The Top. It is written this way because Afrikaans is the second most popular language in South Africa. There were also signs on the side of the mountains that we passed saying the name of the town below them. Each letter was about 50ft x 40ft, made of rocks, so it could be seen from the road.
Swartzberg Pass was a real highlight on the trip. I enjoyed the adventurous roads and spectacular views and thought the signs were really cool.
Tags: Garden Route, Kids, South Africa, Swartzberg Pass, Travel
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