Bain's Passes

Gydo Pass

AndrewDocumented

Built by Andrew with convict labour, at the same time as Michell's Pass.

R303Route
10.1 kmLength
1,020 m(Op-die-Berg end)Summit
TarSurface

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Before you go

Steep drop-offs; occasional winter snow closures and snow-day traffic congestion.

Road conditions change with weather, floods, fires and roadworks. Check the latest conditions with the road authority or local tourism office before you leave, and carry offline maps.

About this pass

Andrew Bain and a gang of convicts finished Gydo in 1848. The tarred pass drops about 487 m over 10.1 km, from 1,020 m at the Op-die-Berg end to 533 m at the Ceres end, averaging 1:21 and reaching 1:10. In winter snow occasionally closes it for a few days, and snow-day crowds can back traffic up towards Michell's Pass. A photograph from about 1935 shows it still gravel; the Ceres Museum says it was improved in the 1930s and tarred in the 1950s.

Gydo lifts the road from the Warm Bokkeveld up onto the Koue Bokkeveld plateau, some of the richest fruit country in the Cape (apples, peaches, pears). About 32 sweeping bends climb through fynbos, and waboom proteas, one of the few proteas that grow into trees, stand in clumps beside the road. Their leaves were once used for ink and their bark for a dye. The name is usually translated as "steep passage". It may come from a San word, or from a euphorbia that grows on the mountainsides. The road reaches the high plateau, so winter snow can close it, and on snow days the traffic can queue back from the foot of Michell's Pass. Spring is the time for wildflowers. Wagons were crossing the mountain here from the early 18th century, before Andrew's road. The Ceres Museum says it was improved in the 1930s and tarred in the 1950s. A Gydouw Pass convict station (Tulbagh) has postal records for 1866 to 1867. Ross's chronology: Bain surveyed and built it in 1848 at the same time as Michell's Pass; three miles long, cost R1,904. A new pass twice as long, costing R25,000, replaced it in the late 1930s and was widened and tarred in the 1950s.

History

Built by
Built by Andrew with convict labour, at the same time as Michell's Pass.
Built
1848
Location
R303, Ceres to Op-die-Berg, Western Cape
Later work
Upgraded.Improved in the 1930s (Ceres Museum).Resurfaced.Tarred in the 1950s (Ceres Museum).
Notes
The pass links Ceres with Op-die-Berg. The R303 continues for about 80 km beyond it, where the untarred Middelberg Pass (not one of the Bains' passes) descends to Citrusdal. Grokipedia (AI-generated) adds a 1950s reroute that doubled the length, a hill-climb race held until 2008, and details on geology, wildlife and the 1969 Tulbagh earthquake; none of these could be confirmed in other sources and they are not used. Grokipedia and Wikipedia describe the R303 as running between Ceres and Citrusdal, while the card keeps the Ceres to Op-die-Berg section.

Find it

Pin
-33.23390, 19.33080
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