Vines, Passes and the Sea - 145km

HAROLD PORTER BOTANICAL GARDEN

Covering 188 ha, this beautiful gardens lies against a backdrop of high mountains and incorporates two beautiful forested kloofs with waterfalls: Disa Gorge and Leopard’s Kloof. The garden was named after the original owner of the land, who bequeathed it to the National Botanical Gardens of South Africa when he died in 1957. The garden focuses on the conservation and cultivation of the flora of the winter rainfall area.

A network of footpaths meander through the 5 ha of cultivated gardens, with their lawns, tranquil ponds and collections of various plant families, as well as the natural fynbos on the mountain slopes. The walk to the waterfall in Disa Gorge is highly recommended, especially from late December to mid-January when the red disas are in bloom.

KLEINMOND

Bounded by the Palmietberge to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, Kleinmond nestles along the rocky coastline between the Palmiet Lagoon in the west and the Kleinmond Lagoon in the east. It has been a popular holiday destination ever since farmers from Elgin began using Kleinmond as their annual summer holiday retreat almost a century ago.

Covering 355 ha, the Kleinmond Coastal Nature Reserve extends from the coast, with its strandveld vegetation, to the fynbos-covered mountain slopes north of the town, and provides protection to more than 1 000 plant species. The reserve adjoins the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve and is criss-crossed by a network of trails. Kleinmond Lagoon offers safe swimming and canoeing, while the sandy beach off Sandown Bay can be accessed via a footbridge.

HOUWHOEK PASS

In the early days of travel, crossing the Houwhoek Mountains, which separate the Elgin Valley from the rolling hills beyond the Bot River, presented a formidable obstacle. Houwhoek means ‘hold corner’, and probably came from the need to hold back, or slow down, the ox wagons when negotiating the steep descent.

The original pass was completed in 1831. At the summit of the pass is the Houw Hoek Inn, established in 1834 on the site of an old tollgate, and the oldest inn in the country. Most of the ground floor dates back to 1779, while the upper storey was added in 1860.

GRABOUW

...is the centre of one of the country’s most important apple-producing regions, and is also a major producer of pears, plums and nectarines. Situated on the banks of the Palmiet River in a sheltered valley between the Hottentots Holland and the Groenland mountains, the town developed around a trading store opened by Wilhelm Langschmidt in 1856. He named it Grabau, after his birthplace in Germany.

ELGIN

When the railway reached Grabouw in 1902, the station had to be built on more level ground as the gradient above the village was too steep. Land was made available on the farm Glen Elgin (named in honour of the 9th Earl of Elgin, the Colonial Secretary at the time) and the station was named Elgin. In time, the name was also used to refer to the whole valley. The first apples were planted in the area in 1905 by Sir Antonie Viljoen, and today Elgin is famous world-wide for its Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Starking apples.

The story of the apple industry is told in the Elgin Apple Museum (open daily during summer), one of only two apple museums in the world. Several local farm stalls tempt travellers to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as homemade farm produce.

STEENBRAS DAM

...was commissioned in the early 1920s after the reservoirs on Table Mountain could no longer meet the growing water demands of Cape Town. Since its completion, the dam wall has been raised twice to increase the dam’s capacity. Covering 380 ha when full, the water backs up to 8 km behind the 36-m-high dam wall. Steenbras is one of only two pumped storage power stations in South Africa, with a maximum capacity of 400 MW. When demand for electricity is low, water is pumped from a lower reservoir for storage in the dam. When demand rises, the water is released to generate electricity.

SIR LOWRY’S PASS

The route into the Cape interior across the Hottentots Holland Mountains initially followed a game trail known to the Khoikhoi as the Gantouw, a name meaning ‘elands’ path’. The route, about 2 km northeast of the summit of Sir Lowry’s Pass, followed a steep, narrow kloof; the deep ruts carved by the thousands of wagons that crossed the mountain can still be seen in the rocks.

At nearby Kanonkop, the Dutch East India Company sited two cannons to signal the arrival of ships in Table Bay and to warn of impending Khoikhoi attack. The Gantouw was replaced in 1828 by a new route named in honour of Sir Lowry Cole, the Cape Governor at the time. At the top of the pass there is a splendid view over False Bay.