Grootrivier Pass, is situated 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 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 count ...

on the

R102 The R.102 (originally referred to as Project H) was a British airship planned in 1930 but never built. The development of R.102 resulted from the Imperial Airship Scheme, when it became apparent that the R100 and R101 airships then being built ...

regional road. The Grootrivier (

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans g ...

for "Great River") is one of various mountain streams that over millions of years have cut through the coastal plateau towards the sea. The

winds its way from the N2 on the coastal plateau, which is an ancient sea-bed now at 220m above sea-level, through dense coastal forest, down to the resort of

Nature's Valley Nature's Valley is a holiday resort and small village on the Garden Route along the southern Cape coast of South Africa. Nature's Valley lies between the Salt River, the foothills of the Tsitsikamma Mountains, the Indian Ocean and the Groot Rive ...

on the Grootrivier and then climbs the opposite slope, back to the plateau. The pass was finished in 1880 by

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 ...

and major reconstruction was carried out on both sections in 2010. The route from plateau down to sea-level and then back to the plateau, was dictated by the wide and deep gorge carved by the Grootrivier and stretching inland to the

Tsitsikamma Mountains The Tsitsikamma mountains form an east-west mountain range located in the Garden Route region of the southern South African coast in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces. Tsitsikamma means 'place of much water' in the Khoekhoe language. ...

. Modern bridge-building techniques spanned the three gorges of the Grootrivier, the Bloukrans River and the

Storms River Storms River ( af, Stormsrivier) is a river in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The river mouth is located in the Tsitsikamma National Park. The 5 day Otter Trail starts at the Storms River mouth. See also * Tsitsikamma National ...

, allowing the opening of the freeway in June 1984. The forest is home to a myriad of bird species as well as small antelope,

vervet monkeys The vervet monkey (''Chlorocebus pygerythrus''), or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus ''Chlorocebus''. The five distinct ...

baboons Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma ...

and leopards. The road features various viewpoints and picnic spots.''Conolly's Guide to Southern Africa'' - Denis Conolly (1990)

References

{{reflist Mountain passes of the Western Cape