Drive the Swartberg Pass in the Karoo

By Roxanne Reid
‘Show him an easy place to make a road and he shakes his head and says no. But show him a place where a monkey can’t get out and he’ll jump at it like a cat.’ So someone said of engineer and road builder Thomas Bain at the opening ceremony of theSwartberg Pass in the Karoo. Today, nearly 130 years later, the gravel pass that Bain built is still one of South Africa’s finest. On a road trip to the Karoo in May we drove north over the Swartberg Pass to Prince Albert, looking d...