HERITAGE LETTER
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D.C.

By Dave Cowley

With more than thirty mountain passes between them - Master Road Builders Andrew Geddes Bain and his son, Thomas Bain, must surely be laughing in their respective graves.

Neither of them would have attempted to drive a road around the exposed and unstable cliffs of Chapman's Peak but would have opted for a route which went over the nek between Noordhoek Peak and Chapman's Peak, basing their decision on the fact that the cliff route was intrinsically dangerous and prone to avalanches and collapse.

Many of the Bain Passes still exist today which is testament to their genius particularly when one realises that that Portland Cement was not used in South Africa until two years after Thomas Bain's death. Victoria Road from Camps Bay to Hout Bay was the last road of Thomas' career which was completed in 1887 whilst at the same time he was still working on the Swartberg Pass and The seven Passes Rd from George to Knysna, with a distance of over 600 km between them - all done via coach or on horseback!

Ironically the building of Chapmans Peak Scenic Drive was left to Bain descendants - "Bull" Bain and Robert Bromley (who was married to a Bain). They were obviously "coerced" by the tourism lobby of the day - whose successors should be the ones to accept the responsibility for the unsound judgment of their distant predecessors!

The Bains could also teach us another lesson - many of their roads were built by convict labour - and at the age of 16 Thomas Bain was in charge of a gang of 240 men during the building of Bain's Kloof Pass by his father. The gangs were led by "trusties" and had to do the tough excavation work. If a convict escaped - his sentence was doubled - however, the convict who caught the escapee - had his sentence halved. Apparently with such rules few convicts absconded. They were treated well, given schools and hospitals and on completion of their sentences many of the men elected to stay on as paid employees.

Perhaps there could be a lesson for our Correctional Services and Public Works Departments to consider?

New Toll Road.
The possibility of a toll road opens a new chapter for both Hout Bay & Noordhoek, however, in general terms, unless a holistic view is taken, Hout Bay could easily emerge worse off than we are already.

The new recipe must include a traffic management plan starting at the new Victoria Rd Traffic circle through to Chapmans Peak Drive, including the Princess intersection and the proposed connecting road from Princess to the Promenade.

Whilst the Government and tourism industry are keen to solve the Chapmans Peak Drive problem they must also understand that it represents 33% of the Provincial Roads serving Hout Bay and that the other two roads also carry heavy tourist traffic. The Atlantic Scenic Drive was recently much improved for tourists as were the visitor facilities on Chapmans Peak but little has been done to meet the needs of residents in Hout Bay itself and they are justifiably becoming more and more irritated by the fact.

The late Hugh Floyd, who together with Bernie Oberholtzer was responsible for the Atlantic Scenic route and Chapman's Peak Drive upgrades also suggested a road which should bypass the East Fort buildings to the East thus allowing the complex to be reconnected as it was originally to East Battery below the current road. This possibility for the reunification of East Fort could create a first class Military History site being one of the oldest in the country circa 1791. It could be that any toll facilities could be located nearby and adequate parking arranged.

Perhaps our new National Park will take up the idea?

Dave Cowley
16/12/99