Qualla: Versfeld Pass https://qualla.com/versfeld-pass en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/m/versfeld-pass-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Versfeld Pass https://qualla.com/versfeld-pass Versfeld Pass: Introduction https://qualla.com/versfeld-pass/ Photo credit DominusStella, CC BY-SA 4.0. Johannes Paulus Eksteen Versfeld -- John to everyone who knew him -- had nearly lost his children on the mountain more than once. The journey to the top of the Piketberg range, where fruit farms spread across the plateau, took four hours of dangerous, slow climbing on tracks that barely deserved the name. After one particularly harrowing trip, John went to the local government and asked them to build a proper pass. When they refused, he decided to build it himself.

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Image: DominusStella | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/m/versfeld-pass-wp/k6jm-versfeld-pass-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Versfeld Pass: A Shape in the Moonlight https://qualla.com/versfeld-pass/ Photo credit DominusStella, CC BY-SA 4.0. The story of the pass's design belongs to a single night in 1889. John woke in the darkness, and in the moonlight glinting off his watch face, he saw a shape -- curves, loops, a pattern. He shouted into the quiet room: "That's it... That is what I will do with my pass!" The disti...

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Image: DominusStella | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/m/versfeld-pass-wp/k6jm-versfeld-pass-a-shape-in-the-moonlight.mp3 0:06 2 full Versfeld Pass: The Old Ossewa Pas https://qualla.com/versfeld-pass/ Photo credit DominusStella, CC BY-SA 4.0. The original pass climbed to the west of what is now the R366 road, winding through a series of named turns that farmers and travelers came to know by heart. Nooi se Draai. Esels Draai -- Donkey's Turn. Moedverloor, a name that translates loosely as "lost courage." Vasvat Draai, ...

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]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/m/versfeld-pass-wp/k6jm-versfeld-pass-the-old-ossewa-pas.mp3 0:06 3 full Versfeld Pass: Armstrong's Modern Road https://qualla.com/versfeld-pass/ Photo credit DominusStella, CC BY-SA 4.0. Motor vehicles began using the pass in 1926, and for seventeen years the road John had built for ox-wagons carried automobiles and trucks. By 1943, a farmer named Christopher Armstrong from Heldervue farm recognized that the old alignment could not serve modern traffic. He went t...

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Image: DominusStella | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/m/versfeld-pass-wp/k6jm-versfeld-pass-armstrongs-modern-road.mp3 0:06 4 full Versfeld Pass: The Plateau Above https://qualla.com/versfeld-pass/ Photo credit DominusStella, CC BY-SA 4.0. At 689 meters, the summit of Versfeld Pass opens onto a landscape that surprises first-time visitors. The Piketberg plateau, known locally as the Piket Bo-Berg -- the upper mountain -- is covered with fruit farms that benefit from the altitude's cooler temperatures and the reliab...

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]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/6/j/m/versfeld-pass-wp/k6jm-versfeld-pass-the-plateau-above.mp3 0:06 5 full