Seven Passes Road is the oldest direct road link between

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

and

Knysna Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 47. ...

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 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The road which traverses seven passes was engineered by

Thomas Charles John Bain Thomas Charles John Bain (29 September 1830, in Graaff-Reinet – 29 September 1893) was a South African road engineer. As a prolific road building pioneer, Bain was responsible for the planning and construction of more than 900 km of road ...

and Adam de Smidt. It was completed around 1883 and is situated just south of the

Outeniqua Mountains The Outeniqua Mountains, named after the Outeniqua Khoikhoi who lived there, is a mountain range that runs a parallel to the southern coast of South Africa, and forms a continuous range with the Langeberg to the west and the Tsitsikamma Mountains ...

Seven passes

The seven passes, in order from George to Knysna, are: * Kaaimans River Pass * Silwer River Pass * Touw River Pass * Hoogekraal Pass * Karatara Pass * Homtini Pass * Phantom Pass

History

The first of the passes to be completed was Phantom Pass, in 1862, which was named for the

ghost moth The ghost moth or ghost swift (''Hepialus humuli'') is a moth of the family Hepialidae. It is common throughout Europe, except for in the far south-east. Female ghost moths are larger than males, and exhibit sexual dimorphism with their differ ...

s that live in the area. The pass was rebuilt in 1882. In 1863, Bain designed the 75-km road from George to Knysna, which reached the

Kaaimans River The Kaaimans River ( af, Kaaimansrivier), also known as Keerom River, is a river in the Western Cape, South Africa. The mouth of the river lies near Wilderness. Further upriver, the Kaaimans River Gorge is popular for hiking and whitewater kayakin ...

in 1869 and Woodville (26 km from George) in 1871. The discovery of gold near

Karatara Karatara is a town in Knysna Local Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Settlement and forestry station on the Karatara River which flows southwards into Swartvlei. It is situated 5 km west of Barrington and some 40& ...

led to expansion lines toward there and further north near the Homtini River. Homtini Pass, the last completed, was finished in 1882 and officially opened in 1883.

Present day

Seven Passes Road is a tourist attraction very popular with mountain bikers. Attractions along the road include the old

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

fields near Millwood. Nowadays, Seven Passes Road has been replaced for transportation purposes by the N2 national road, including Kaaimans River Pass between George and

Wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

Gallery

File:Kaaimans Bridge00.jpg, Kaaimans River bridge on the Seven Passes Road between George and Knysna; built by

Palmiet ''Prionium serratum'', the palmiet, is a robust, evergreen, semiaquatic, rhizomatous flowering plant growing to in height. It is the only species in the genus ''Prionium'', and is endemic to South Africa (Cape Province and KwaZulu-Natal). Some ...

growing in foreground.

References

{{coord missing, South Africa Mountain passes of the Western Cape