Qualla: Nuwekloof Pass

Nuwekloof Pass: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1658, a surveyor named Pieter Potter stood at the mouth of a precipitous gorge and gave up. The Klein Berg River had cut a passage through the Obiqua Mountains, but the sheer cliffs on either side defeated him. He turned north, found an easier route over the ridgeline, and named what he saw on the other side Roodezand Valley, for the red hue of its sand and rocks. That detour -- and the centuries of effort to undo it -- is the story of Nuwekloof Pass.

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Nuwekloof Pass: The Only Ways Through

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In the early years of European settlement at the Cape, an unbroken wall of mountains running north to south cut Cape Town off from the interior. Only three routes permitted the passage of ox-wagons through this barrier: Gantouw Kloof in the south, Piekenierskloof Pass some 170 ki...

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Nuwekloof Pass: The Gorge That Won

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By the 1750s, the overland route had become exhausting, and the farmers of the area decided to attempt what Potter could not: a road through the river gorge itself. Under the leadership of Jacobus du Toit, they pushed a route along the eastern bank of the Klein Berg River. Becaus...

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Nuwekloof Pass: Naturalists and Toll Collectors

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The pass attracted distinguished travelers. Swedish botanist Carl Thunberg came through in 1772 and noted it was "one of the few chasms left by the long range of mountains through which it is possible for a wagon to pass," adding that in some places it was too narrow for two wago...

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Nuwekloof Pass: Bain's Road and Beyond

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The legendary pass builder Thomas Bain reconnoitered the kloof in 1855 and proposed shifting the road to the western bank of the Klein Berg River. His recommendation was carried out in 1859 and 1860, producing a road that would serve for the next hundred years. A railway line was...

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