The Garcia's Pass is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

across the

Langeberg The Langeberg Range is a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its highest peak is Keeromsberg at 2,075 m that lies 15 km northeast of the town of Worcester. Some of the highest peaks of the range are located just to ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

province of South Africa, with its highest point at altitude. The regional road numbered R323 uses this pass on its leg between Riversdale in the south and

Ladismith Ladismith is a town and agricultural centre in the western Little Karoo region of South Africa's Western Cape province. Geography It is situated adjacent to a series of fertile, irrigated valleys, at an elevation of 550 m above sea level, at ...

in the

Little Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

to the north. From Riversdale, the road winds to the Garcia Pass across the Langeberg to Muiskraal in the northern foothills. The maximum slope is 1:14 on the southern descend. The pass was named in honor of Maurice Garcia, the commissioner of Riversdale between 1863 and 1877. He quickly came to see that a road between the recently established town of Ladismith and the coast would be of great benefit to the farmers of the Little Karoo to enable their produce to be shipped from the harbor at

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay ( af, Mosselbaai) is a harbour town of about 99,000 people on the Southern Cape (or Garden Route) of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the ...

. From horseback, Garcia himself laid out a route that is much shorter than the earlier route over the Gysmanshoek Pass. By the year 1868 his

bridle path A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider r ...

was already used by riders. In 1871,

Thomas Bain Thomas Bain (December 14, 1834 – January 18, 1915) was a Scottish born Canadian parliamentarian. Bain was born in Scotland, the son of Walter Bain, and migrated to Canada with his family when he was three years old. They settled on a bu ...

upgraded the pass to enable transport by carts. Prison labor was used to construct the tracks, while the workers were housed in a temporary jail on site. The

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

's Prime Minister, Sir John Gordon Sprigg officially opened the pass in November 1879. A

toll house A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road, canal, or toll bridge. History Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and ...

was constructed along the pass. Jimmy Luyt was the first tax collector, and after his death, his wife and Jan Swart continued this job. Nationwide, the levying of tolls stopped in 1918. The toll house was given the status of monument in 1968, one of several provincial heritages sites near Riversdale. The Kristalkloof and the Sleeping Beauty footpaths both start from the site of the toll house. The pass was reconstructed in 1976, when the road got an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

covering.

External links

Part 1 Documentary on Youtube

References

Mountain passes of the Western Cape {{WesternCape-geo-stub

External links

See also

References