The Tradouw Pass in the Overberg Region

Have you ever heard of Buffeljagsrivier or Suurbraak? What about colourful characters such as Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel or Joseph Barry? And the Hessequa Khoi word tradau, the subject of this feature? Patrick Wagner leads you on a lively tour.

The unusual word tradau means ‘the way of the women’ and is believed to be derived from the Khoi words tra signifying ‘women’ and dau denoting ‘way through’.

The exact reason why the 43-kilometre-long Tradouw Pass between Swellendam and Barrydale has been labelled with this peculiar name remains uncertain. What is certain, however, is that it makes for a spectacular drive through the heart of the Cape Folded Mountains.

This is but one of 13 passes that master road engineer Thomas Bain built in the Southern Cape during the 1800s, and to fully appreciate the character of the Tradouw Pass you have to delve into its vibrant days of yesteryear. . . .Nestling in the Koringlands River Valley at the foot of the Langeberg, Swellendam dates back to the early 1700s when it was a bustling frontier town. The handful of farmers that settled on the southerly mountain slopes and along the banks of the nearby Breede River found the region extremely fertile.

Apart from its farming potential and visual beauty, the rolling hills were teeming with game such as lion, elephant, rhino, hippo, red hartebeest, grysbok, grey rhebok and buffalo, as well as the once endangered mountain zebra (currently classified as vulnerable), bontebok (rare), and the now extinct quagga and bloubok.

This productive area soon became the frontier village of the old pioneer wagon road to the Eastern Cape. The many hunters and explorers who blazed this route found a settlement with facilities to repair their wagons, a multitude of fresh supplies and much-needed hospitality.

By 1743 the small town that subsequently sprung up had been declared a sub-drostdy for the outer districts of the Cape Colony. It developed so rapidly that just two years later the settlement was officially named the Swellendam District in honour of Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel and his wife Helena van Damme.

Despite a four-and-a-half-month hiccup in 1795 when the local burghers dismissed the landdrost and claimed independence of colonial Cape Town (incidentally the same thing happened in Graaff-Reinet the same year), the town that developed round its Drostdy (magisterial building) blossomed into the administrative and commercial capital of what became known as the Overberg district.

In the early 1800s Swellendam prospered steadily as a horse-, cattle- and sheep-farming region with the wool industry being the stimulus for development. The cultivation of wheat and fruit were also an important facet of the economy.

A prominent businessman in those days was Joseph Barry, the merchant prince of the Overberg who founded the family firm Barry and Nephews. The company employed skilled craftsmen who supported the farming community as blacksmiths, coppersmiths, shoemakers and coopers as well as millers. According to historians the lively song, As jy lekker wil lewe koop by Barry Newe, was regularly sung by children playing along Swellendam’s bustling main street.

In these golden years of commerce Swellendam boasted a newspaper, a racetrack and a library. The Barrys even organised a shipping service on the lower course of the Breede. Because it took a full three weeks for wagons to transport merchandise to Cape Town, shipping the wealth of the Overberg to the Cape by sea was much more profitable.

On 26 September 1859 the 158-ton, specially built steamer Kadie arrived at the mouth of the Breede (known then as Port Beaufort) on her maiden voyage from Cape Town. She successfully negotiated the treacherous sand bar and steamed the 48 kilometres upstream to Malgaskraal (now Malgas), about 40 kilometres from Swellendam. It was a merry day of celebration and the district anticipated a bright future. This is where the Tradouw Pass first comes into the picture. . . .

Once the Barrys had established they could profitably transport Swellendam’s valuable cargoes of butter, wool, sheep and grain to Cape Town, they turned their attention to unlocking the wealth of the valley of the Little Karoo.

The lofty Langeberg formed an imposing barrier between the rolling hills of the Cape’s South Coast and the Karoo’s inland and plains.

Brilliant road engineer Thomas Bain, son of the famous pioneer engineer Andrew Geddes Bain, was the next link in the trade chain. Known among his colleagues as ‘the man with the theodolite eye’, Bain was such a successful road engineer that he outstripped even his father’s impressive record.

Andrew Geddes Bain was responsible for the construction of eight passes including the well-known Bain’s Kloof Pass and Michell’s Pass, while Thomas completed three major roads and 20 mountain passes of which the Swartberg Pass is widely considered the masterpiece of all his engineering feats.

In 1869, as soon as Bain had completed and opened the Robinson Pass between Oudtshoorn and Mossel Bay, he turned his attention to the Tradouw Pass. Work had already commenced the previous year when he sent in his chief foreman with a small party of convict labourers. They constructed the main station at the southern end of the poort.

Bain always had the needs of the communities his roads were going to serve in the forefront of his mind, so he was welcomed warmly by the Barrys who invited his family to move into a beautiful old house on the farm Lismore. The farm was a paradise for them, and the Barrys and the Bains became great friends.

Being a man with tremendous respect for nature, Bain knew that river courses, like roads, preferred the path of least resistance. He therefore decided that the pass should follow the same winding course that the Tradouw River had carved through the buckled landscape.

With the line of construction said to be “very favourable”, Bain set to work with the main team of convicts. Road and river followed one another’s twists and turns and care was taken to keep the route well above the highest flood level.
By the end of 1869 four kilometres of road had been completed through difficult terrain which required a great deal of shattering of rocks with gunpowder.

During the next three years the numbers of convicts were reduced and the work-pace slowed considerably, but Bain persisted and successfully replaced a stone bridge over a tributary of the Tradouw with a teak construction, rebuilt the regularly flooded road through the mission station at Suurbraak at the southern end of the Langeberg, and eventually completed the final stages of the pass.

In 1873 the Tradouw Pass was open to traffic and Bain was sent away to construct a railway line through Tulbagh Kloof.

Soon after its completion the farming community built a church at the top of the pass and the town that grew up round it was named in honour of the Barry family. Barrydale subsequently developed into a productive fruit-farming area famous for its apples, pears, apricots and prunes, with dried fruit being a speciality. It also experienced a short-lived economic boom during the sudden demand for ostrich feathers in late Victorian times.Despite the success of Bain’s new trade link, the story has a rather sad ending. In 1865 a series of tragic events in and around Swellendam triggered the fall of the golden years of commerce.

On 17 May that year a fire sparked from a baker’s oven razed the town. Fanned by a stiff wind, the flames jumped from one thatched roof to the next and destroyed 40 fine homes. Even more destructive was the persistence of a terrible drought and a subsequent trade depression.

The next disaster could not have come at a worse time. On 17 November, after 120 voyages, the Kadie steamer struck the rocks on the western bank of the Breede and was totally wrecked.

The Barry empire teetered and was eventually liquidated, leaving a mercantile void in the developing Overberg. The extensive Swellendam district was divided into a number of smaller ones, which further deprived South Africa’s third oldest town of the economic wellbeing it had once enjoyed.Today Swellendam remains a picturesque town and an important rail and road centre in the heart of a farming area famous for its wheat, wool, sheep, cattle and Breede River Valley wines. In fact, the sheep of this district produce the country’s highest yield of top-quality wool. The town is an interesting stopover for those travelling along the N2 which has replaced the old wagon road to the Eastern Cape.

Although other steamers continued to trade out of Port Beaufort until 1933, the waters of the Breede are now frequented only by recreational craft and fishermen. Today the mouth is a popular seaside and angling resort.

Barrydale is now a peaceful village whose fortunes took an upswing when the farmers formed a wine and brandy cooperative just before World War Two.

A drive from Swellendam to Barrydale is the perfect way to absorb the vibrant history of this fascinating area. Start your trip with a walk down Swellendam’s main road, Voortrek Street, where you can easily visualise the atmosphere of the 1850s. Among the numerous beautifully restored places of historical interest are the original Drostdy, now a museum and one of the architectural gems of South Africa, and the Auld House, which belonged to the Barry family (this walk will be featured in a forthcoming issue of Getaway).

From Swellendam take the N2 towards Heidelberg and after 10 kilometres you will pass through the fertile valley of the BuffeIjagsrivier, a tributary of the Breede. The tiny town in this unusually named valley has magnificent views of the imposing Langeberg to the north as well as a restaurant and a service station.

Just beyond BuffeIjagsrivier turn left onto the R324 to Suurbraak and Barrydale. The eight-kilometre drive to Suurbraak takes you through rolling farmlands dotted with bright aloes in winter and flocks of sheep grazing in the green pastures.

Suurbraak is a colourful village which dates back to 1812 when Hans Moos, a chief of the Attaqua Khoisan, requested that the London Missionary Society send a missionary to the settlement. Today it appears as an accumulation of cottages, some of which are thatched and double-storeyed, lining the two-kilometre main street.

A few kilometres beyond Suurbraak the road passes Lismore Farm (which still belongs to the Barry family) then branches left onto the R324 to Barrydale following the course of the Tradouw. At the junction you can clearly see the road snaking into the confined poort where its path is regularly identified by beautifully constructed dry-stone walls – a hallmark of Bain’s passes.

Just before the climb along the edge of the valley the route crosses the concrete Andries Uys Bridge. At this point it’s worth stopping to study the teak Letty’s Bridge which is almost concealed within the recess of a narrow tributary of the Tradouw. Situated next to the modern tarred road, this narrow bridge gives a clear indication of how insignificant the early gravel pass must have appeared amid the striking strata of folded sandstone of the Langeberg.

Beyond the bridge the pass climbs steadily for three kilometres to its highest point at an altitude of 351 metres. This is an excellent area to stop because there are a number of lay-bys and picnic spots along this section with panoramic views of the mountainous terrain.

The road then follows a gradual descent into the heart of the Langeberg which is also the most beautiful section of the Tradouw Valley. Hugging the northern slope of the steep ravine, the route twists into a narrow three-kilometre-long gorge with galleries of twisted and tortured sandstone rising high on both sides and dark tannin-stained water gurgling in the tranquil river below.

In recent years the pass has been substantially rebuilt and along this section you can clearly make out where the old route closely followed the course of the stream. With the aid of modem technology the new road has since been chiselled higher up the side of the gorge.

The Tradouw Pass is renowned for its wild flowers in spring, clusters of blazing red aloes in late autumn, cascading waterfalls in winter and magnificent swimming pools in summer. This section of the pass is the perfect place to stop and absorb this scenery, since there are frequent parking areas lining the route.

There are said to be several caves with Bushman paintings in this area, but there are no signposts indicating their location. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, since the destruction of valuable rock art has occurred in most of the easily accessible caves in the Cape.

Beyond this beautiful gorge the route winds out of the precipitous walls of the Langeberg and flattens into a broad valley. At this point it’s worth stopping at one of the lay-bys to appreciate the view of the pass behind you. Twisted layers of sandstone coated with yellow lichens and bright aloes rise high into the heavens like a bizarre gothic construction. It’s a delightful setting and you can only admire Bain’s genius for carving a pass through such rugged terrain without the aid of modern technology.

The mountainous terrain gives way to an undulating route that meanders for a further five kilometres before reaching the R62 and the turn-off to Barrydale.

Barrydale remains a village but it is well worth driving down its main street if only to stock up with dried fruit and visit some of the wine farms to test the produce of the area, and salute its pioneer settlers. It’s the perfect way to end this journey through the heart of the Overberg.