Bain's Passes

Seven Passes Road (George to Knysna)

ThomasDocumented

Thomas Bain and Adam de Smidt surveyed and built the George–Knysna road in sections. The individual passes are not all Thomas's: both men are recorded as engineer and contractor, and Adam de Smidt is identified as builder of some of the western passes.

—Route
75 km(whole Seven Passes Road)Length
230 mSummit
Gravel with tarred sectionsSurface

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Before you go

Closed to all road users. Floods damaged the road in November 2021, and the Western Cape government has been repairing it, with only a partial reopening expected from about late 2026. Check with the Department of Infrastructure or George Municipality before you travel, and do not ignore closure signs, because much of the damage is below the surface.

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

The Seven Passes Road was the only road between George and Knysna for about 70 years, until the coastal N2 replaced it in 1952. It runs just south of the Outeniqua Mountains and crosses seven river gorges: Kaaimans River, Silver River, Touw River, Hoogekraal, Karatara, Homtini and Phantom. The George Divisional Council first petitioned Parliament for the road in 1860, Thomas Bain made his first survey in 1866, and construction began in 1867. Progress was uneven, partly because Bain was reassigned to projects elsewhere in the colony. The Great Fire of 1869 cleared the hilltops, which helped the clearing, and the road was finished around 1883. The road is made of gravel between paved ends, past indigenous forest, gorges, single-lane bridges, forestry settlements and farms. It is mostly gravel but easy to drive in dry weather, and visitors say small cars manage it. Wet weather softens the surface and the road floods easily at the Touw River.

Each pass has its own character. Kaaimans River Pass was the first, a narrow twisting climb through forest. Touw River Pass is the biggest and floods most easily, and its bridge is a popular spot to swim and picnic, with the Half Collared Kingfisher trail nearby. Karatara Pass has the steepest climb of the seven, with a sharp hairpin. Homtini, named for a Khoi-San word said to mean "difficult passage", drops through a hairpin into thick forest where the canopy almost meets overhead, and Bain's road survives there almost exactly as he left it, apart from the bridge. Phantom Pass is named after the Phantom moth and was the earliest, built in 1862 as a forestry access road. Stops include the Map of Africa viewpoint at Wilderness Heights and the Woodville Big Tree, an Outeniqua yellowwood about 800 years old, 33 m tall and 12 m round. Side trips lead to the old Millwood gold fields, the Jubilee Creek picnic area and the 19 km Homtini mountain bike trail. In 1932 George Bernard Shaw crashed on the pass and his wife was injured; the couple stayed in Knysna while she recovered. Bain and his brother-in-law Adam de Smidt both surveyed the route, and the dispute is said to have ended in a lifelong estrangement. Two sources say Bain built the road with a convict gang paid a salary. Ross's chronology: the route was located from 1863; Bain and Adam de Smidt began in April 1867. Swart River Pass was the first, "necessitating difficult building, blasting and cutting". Bain reached the Kaaimans in 1869 (progress was "incredibly slow": two years to cover 1.6 km from Saasveld) and routed his road well upstream of the notorious Kaaimansgat crossing. Work reached Woodville in 1871. Bain was transferred to Tradouw in 1870 and work stalled until 1880, partly through route uncertainty; De Smidt favoured a higher route along the foot of the Outeniquas, Bain a middle one. Homtini was finished in 1882, the road was available in 1883, and it was handed to the Divisional Council in 1887. Photographs dated 1878 show the Kaaimans, Silver and Homtini rivers still crossed by drifts; the tarred-pine bridges built about 1893 "looked like huge black coffins" and lasted under ten years, replaced by concrete in 1902. The seven passes are Swart River, Kaaimans River, Touw River, Hoogekraal, Karatara, Homtini and Phantom. Ross (2001): the Great Fire of 1869, which burned from Riversdale to Uitenhage, probably made it possible for Bain to push his Tsitsikamma road through the coastal shelf in the late 1880s. Bain's Seven Passes crossing of the Kaaimans in 1869 was four kilometres upstream of the Kaaimansgat drift, where the topography is less dramatic. Lichtenstein described the Kaaimansgat as appearing "perpendicular"; wagons descended in steps so the draught fell mainly on the rear pair of oxen. The 1951 National Road bridge crosses at Kaaimansgat itself. Ross (2002, as reproduced by Safari Consultants): Thomas Bain moved to Knysna in 1860 and in 1862 built a low-standard foresters' road on river boulders, whose Phantom Pass (said to be named for the white Phantom moth) and causeway were probably the first bits of the Passes Road; it was upgraded in 1882 and in October 1889 Bain surveyed a new Phantom Pass. Bain and his brother-in-law Adam de Smidt disagreed over the route (De Smidt wanted a line nearer the Outeniqua foothills, with shallower gorges) and never spoke again. De Smidt began at the George end in 1867. The main camp stood where Saasveld is now, with a sub-camp of 50 convicts near Ginnesville. The first wagon track at Swart River wore a channel over 2 m deep. The first gold nugget was found in the Karatara River in 1875, and after a February 1879 on-site meeting the Ruigtevlei line was dropped for a higher route past the gold field via Hoogekraal, Karatara and Homtini, the Homtini gorge dropping 2.5 km to the bottom. The road was the main George–Knysna link for almost 70 years until the N2 opened in 1952. The old stone bridges over the Silver and Kaaimans were built in 1903 and 1904 and are national monuments. Visit Knysna adds that all the passes were the work of Bain and De Smidt and that the route is a national monument; sa-venues says Hoogekraal bridge is similar in style to the Kaaimansgat and Silver River bridges and carries two-way traffic.

History

Built by
Thomas Bain and Adam de Smidt surveyed and built the George–Knysna road in sections. The individual passes are not all Thomas's: both men are recorded as engineer and contractor, and Adam de Smidt is identified as builder of some of the western passes.
Built
Road 1867–1883. Kaaimans River 1867; Homtini finished 1882, opened 1883. Phantom Pass is dated 1862 by two sources.
Location
Between George and Knysna, Western Cape (75 km, seven passes)
Later work
Bypassed.Replaced by the N2; the Kaaimans River Pass section was absorbed into the N2. Dates not found.
Notes
Two sources date Phantom Pass to 1862, which predates the 1867 start of the rest of the road. Both are used for Phantom Pass only; the road as a whole is dated 1867–1883. Ross (2001) dates Bain's crossing of the Kaaimans River, four km upstream of the old Kaaimansgat drift, to 1869, against 1867 above. He also records that in 1862, before starting this road, Thomas Bain recommended rebuilding the old Duiwelskop route; that was refused (see the Voortrekker Pass entry). Closure details come from the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure (29 July 2025) and the George Herald (25 September 2025); a blog post says the closure began in March 2026 and would last about seven months, which does not match, so the reopening date is uncertain. Dates for the road differ: Artefacts.co.za gives 1867 to 1882 (1887 also listed), Wikipedia and Murray Douglas give 1883. The Knysna Museums page is a promotional summary of Murray Douglas's book, The Old Roads Between George and Knysna, and gives no detail on individual passes. Visit Knysna and Safari Consultants could not be read. Ross notes the Kaaimans bridge was first a simple wooden bridge by Bain per one source, but another says there was no bridge before the 1893 pine ones. Length is 75 km (Storrar, Burman) or 82 km (Reader's Digest). Completion is given as 1882, 1883 or 1887 (hand-over). Visit Knysna's description of a drivable dirt road predates the flood closure. Safari Consultants has Adam de Smidt, not Bain, starting construction at the George end in 1867.

Find it

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-33.95440, 22.78400
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The seven passes

Kaaimans River Pass: built 1867; Adam de Smidt (George-side works); P355; 2.8 km; summit 180 m; Tar; rebuilt: 1952 (N2 alignment)

Touws River Pass: built c.1883; Adam de Smidt; P355; 2.5 km; summit 210 m; Gravel; rebuilt: Early 20th century (bridge replacement only)

Hoogekraal Pass: built 1870s; Adam de Smidt; P355; 3 km; summit 200 m; Gravel

Karatara Pass: built 1882 (pass); 1883 (road completed); Thomas Bain (Knysna-side section; sources differ on exact division); P355; 2.6 km; summit 215 m; Gravel (with short tarred section near Barrington)

Homtini Pass: Completed 1882; opened 1883; Thomas Bain; P355; 5 km; summit 240 m; Gravel

Phantom Pass: built 1862; Thomas Charles John Bain; P355; 7.4 km; summit 190 m; Gravel

Sources

More Bain passes, roads and bridges

Passes

Roads

Bridges