Bain's Passes

Karoopoort

AndrewAttributed

Built by Adam de Smidt under Andrew Bain's supervision. Andrew did not build it himself.

R355Route
5.8 kmLength
846 mSummit
Gravel with a short tarred stretch near the east endSurface

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Before you go

Often rough, potholed and corrugated, worst on the east side. Dust cuts visibility. Slippery after rain. Sharp curves at 4–5 km have had accidents. Tyre-shard damage is common on the R355.

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

Karoopoort is a 5.8 km natural gap between the Kwarrieberge and the Saalberg, reaching 846 m. It is gravel with a short tarred stretch near the eastern end, and averages 1:59 with a steepest 1:15 over the last 800 m. The road is often rough, potholed and corrugated, particularly on the east side, and dust can hide oncoming vehicles. It turns slippery after rain, the sharp curves between 4 and 5 km have seen accidents, and sharp stones cut tyres along the R355, so drive in the middle of the road. Construction is said to have been managed by Andrew Bain and built by Adam de Smidt, with no years given. From Calvinia it is 200 km on the R355; from Ceres you come in over the R46 and then 7 km along the R355.

Karoopoort is the gate to the desert, the only early way from the Ceres valley into the Karoo, and the Doring River runs through it with the Kwarrieberg on the west and the Saalberg on the east. Travellers were struck by how sharply the country dries out beyond it. Thunberg came through in 1774, Somerville's party in 1801 (they unyoked the oxen and dined here), and Burchell on 13 July 1811, when the grass north of the gap, Galenia, stained his white oxen's legs green. Lichtenstein wrote of the "magic shadows" at dawn. Farmers drove their herds through each winter to escape the Koue Bokkeveld cold. Karoopoort was a government farm leased to local farmers, with a first building around 1850 and travellers' accommodation by the 1860s. In the 1870s it was a major overnight stop on the road to the diamond fields, until the railway through Worcester and Matjiesfontein cut the traffic sharply. Rock art near the homestead shows colonial people, wagons and horses. About 1 km inside the pass is tarred, to keep dust off the orchards. Tenants still live here. The Ceres Museum says the builder is unknown, though Adam de Smit and Bain have both been named. Ross's chronology: Bain built it in 1848 while working on Michell's Pass. Montagu told the Central Road Board that a hard road through Karoopoort and over Michell's Pass would cut a bullock-wagon journey between Beaufort West and Cape Town from twenty days to twelve, so a hard road was built via Theronsberg and Hottentot Kloof. Lichtenstein named it Bokkeveld's Poort in 1803, so Burchell, Arrowsmith and Weller mapped it wrongly as two poorts. In a letter to his wife dated 14 June 1887 from Verkeerdevlei, Thomas Bain says the road from Karoopoort was "ten times worse than the Blaauw Hoogte" and tells how, as they outspanned at Hottentots Kloof, an ostrich attacked, jumped into the cart and bent a lamp iron; he hurt his hip, and dogs had to drive the bird away. The farmers said they had never known an ostrich to attack or jump into a cart.

History

Built by
Built by Adam de Smidt under Andrew Bain's supervision. Andrew did not build it himself.
Built
1848
Location
Near Ceres, Western Cape (Ceres Karoo)
Notes
One heritage article says Andrew opened the route while building Michell's Pass. Only one source gives the year. The Forgotten Highway Guidebook does not mention convicts or Bain at Karoopoort, and gives Lichtenstein's visit as both 1803 and 1805. It says about 1 km of the pass is tarred; the card's description of a short tarred stretch near the east end comes from another source. The letter is reproduced in Ross's 1993 centenary talk.

Find it

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-33.21688, 19.71684
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