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32-804: Nuwekloof Pass , also known as Roodezand Pass or Tulbagh Kloof , is a mountain pass in the Western Cape , South Africa , which crosses the Obiqua Mountains in a kloof created by the Klein Berg River . It allows eastward access from Cape Town and the Swartland into the Tulbagh basin and onwards to the Breede River Valley . In the early days of European settlement at the Cape, only three routes permitted

64-403: A gap , saddle , col or notch . A topographic saddle is analogous to the mathematical concept of a saddle surface , with a saddle point marking the minimum high point between two valleys and the lowest point along a ridge. On a topographic map , passes can be identified by contour lines with an hourglass shape, which indicates a low spot between two higher points. In the high mountains,

96-625: A Landdrost, with those terms then translated into English as High-Bailiwick and High-Bailiff. On 1 April 1885 the terms were replaced in Hanover by the terms Regierungsbezirk (governorate) and Regierungspräsident (governor). After World War II, the old landdrost title was re-used for two extraordinary jurisdictions within the Dutch Occupation Zone in Germany . On 22 March 1949, the Allies agreed to let

128-502: A difference of 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) between the summit and the mountain is defined as a mountain pass. Passes are often found just above the source of a river , constituting a drainage divide . A pass may be very short, consisting of steep slopes to the top of the pass, or a valley many kilometers long, whose highest point might only be identifiable by surveying . Roads and railways have long been built through passes. Some high and rugged passes may have tunnels bored underneath

160-422: A fire burning, or a candle alight in the waggons, obliged us to remain in the darkness till morning" In 1805 the growing village of Roodezand was renamed 'Tulbagh' and a landdrost was stationed there. Travellers and residents took to referring to Nieuwekloof as 'Tulbagh Kloof', and the name persisted. A tollgate was installed on the road in 1807 and Theal the historian noted the tariffs as "a chaise 4 shillings,

192-783: A landdrost. With the annexation of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State during the Boer War, the office fell away, the landdrosts being replaced by British-style magistrates . Since 1958, "landdros" has been used as the Afrikaans term for a magistrate . In 1823 the Kingdom of Hanover , then in personal union with the UK, adopted the term for its administrative subdivisions called Landdrostei[en] (sg.[pl.]), each presided over by

224-411: A loaded wagon 4 shillings, unloaded wagon 2 shillings, cart 2 shillings, saddle horse 1 shilling, 20 oxen or cows 4 shillings, 100 sheep 4 shillings" . At about this time Charles Michell began looking into ways by which the road through the kloof could be upgraded. The redoubtable pass builder, Thomas Bain , reconnoitred the kloof in 1855 and suggested a new route along the western side or left bank of

256-553: A lord’s chief retainer (who later became the medieval seneschal or steward ), equivalent to: Originally, a drost in the Low Countries – where various titles were in use for similar offices – was essentially a steward or seneschal under the local lord, exercising various functions depending on the endlessly varied local customary law , e.g. tax collection, policing, prosecution , and carrying out sentences . In many Lower Rhenish and Westphalian and Lower Saxon estates of

288-518: A nearby mountainside, as with the Eisenhower Tunnel bypassing Loveland Pass in the Rockies, to allow faster traffic flow throughout the year. The top of a pass is frequently the only flat ground in the area, and may be a high vantage point. In some cases this makes it a preferred site for buildings. If a national border follows the ridge of a mountain range, a pass over the mountains is typically on

320-548: A passage for the Little Berg River on each side of which the mountains rise up abrupt and lofty. Their rocky sides are thickly clothed with bushes and trees from their very summits down to the water, presenting a beautiful romantic picture adorned with their variety of foliage. Along the steep and winding sides a road has been cut, which follows the course of the river at a height above it generally between 50 and 100 feet, in one part rising much higher and in another descending to

352-573: A route through the kloof which had defeated Pieter Potter almost a hundred years earlier. Under the leadership of a certain Jacobus du Toit, the farmers of the area pushed through a route on the right bank or the eastern side of the Klein Berg River. Following the course of the river, the route had no steep gradients and soon became the preferred way to the Roodezand settlement, so that by the 1760s it too

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384-484: A route where he could hike to the top without much effort. From the summit he found that he had a sweeping view of the country beyond, and which had been named Roodezand Valley for the red hue of the sand and rocks at its north-western end. This way over the mountain, about 4 km north of Gouda, became known as Roodezand Pass. For the next forty years nothing was done to improve the Pass. In 1699 Willem Adriaan van der Stel ,

416-756: A style of street racing which may take place on these roads. There are thousands of named passes around the world, some of which are well-known, such as the Khyber Pass close to the present-day Afghanistan-Pakistan border on the ancient Silk Road , the Great St. Bernard Pass at 2,473 metres (8,114 ft) in the Alps , the Chang La at 5,360 metres (17,590 ft), the Khardung La at 5,359 metres (17,582 ft) in Ladakh , India and

448-846: Is also used, particularly in Europe. In the highest mountain range in the world, the Himalayas, passes are denoted by the suffix "La" in Tibetan, Ladhakhi, and several other regional languages. Examples are the Taglang La at 5,328 m (17,480 ft) on the Leh-Manali highway , and the Sia La at 5,589 m (18,337 ft) in the Eastern Karakoram range. Scotland has the Gaelic term bealach (anglicised "balloch"), while Wales has

480-747: Is the Brenner pass in the Alps . Some mountain passes above the tree line have problems with snow drift in the winter. This might be alleviated by building the road a few meters above the ground, which will make snow blow off the road. There are many words for pass in the English-speaking world. In the United States, pass is very common in the West , the word gap is common in the southern Appalachians , notch in parts of New England , and saddle in northern Idaho . The term col , derived from Old French,

512-708: The Holy Roman Empire the term Landdrost or Drost(e) described the chief executive official of a military, jurisdictional and/or police ambit, representing his lord-paramount of the territory, therefore often appearing with the affix 'land-'. Among the many territories using the term were the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen , the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim , the County of Mark , and the Duchy of Mecklenburg . The office

544-583: The Palakkad Gap at 140 metres (460 ft) in Palakkad , Kerala , India . The roads at Mana Pass at 5,610 metres (18,410 ft) and Marsimik La at 5,582 metres (18,314 ft), on and near the China–India border respectively, appear to be world's two highest motorable passes. Khunjerab Pass between Pakistan and China at 4,693 metres (15,397 ft) is also a high-altitude motorable mountain pass. One of

576-492: The Klein Berg River, a recommendation which was followed in 1859 and 1860, and was to carry traffic for the next hundred years. A railway line was added to the left bank between the years 1873 and 1874. When an increase in traffic volume demanded a new route, construction returned to the right bank and a modern road was opened in 1968. 33°19′S 19°05′E  /  33.317°S 19.083°E  / -33.317; 19.083 Mountain pass Mountain passes make use of

608-599: The Netherlands occupy and annex some German border territories. These included the municipalities of Havert, Hillensberg, Millen, Süsterseel, Tüddern (Dutch: Tudderen), Wehr, parts of Höngen, Gangelt, Schumm, Saeffelen as well as Elten and Hoch-Elten. The Dutch annexation effectively started on 23 April that year, with the following two jurisdictions declared: This situation lasted until 11 August 1963, when all territories were returned except for minor frontier adjustments, following German agreement to pay war compensation. After

640-454: The border, and there may be a border control or customs station, and possibly a military post. For instance, Argentina and Chile share the world's third-longest international border , 5,300 kilometres (3,300 mi) long, which runs north–south along the Andes mountains and includes 42 mountain passes. On a road over a pass, it is customary to have a small roadside sign giving the name of

672-446: The bottom and leading through the river, which at this time (April) was not more than three feet deep, although often so swollen by the rains as to be for a day or two quite impassable. At this place, a furious stream of wind continued pouring, as it were, through this opening in the mountains, during the whole time of our stay; and it has been remarked by the boors, that this spot is always subject to strong winds. The difficulty of keeping

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704-705: The famous but non-motorable mountain passes is Thorong La at 5,416 metres (17,769 ft) in Annapurna Conservation Area , Nepal. Landdrost Landdrost ( Dutch: [ˈlɑndrɔst] ) was the title of various officials with local jurisdiction in the Netherlands and a number of former territories in the Dutch Empire . The term is a Dutch compound, with land meaning "region" and drost , from Middle Dutch drossāte (droes-state, bloke-castle, state-holder) which originally referred to

736-423: The kloof in 1772 on his way from Saldanha Bay , and noted that it was "one of the few chasms left by the long range of mountains through which it is possible for a wagon to pass" and that in some places it was too narrow for two wagons to pass each other. The intrepid naturalist, William Burchell , went through in 1811 and recorded it as "a narrow winding defile of about three miles in length, just enough to allow

768-403: The newly appointed Governor, decided to open the valley for farming and found it necessary to upgrade the Pass. It was particularly steep on the eastern slopes of the mountain, forcing wagons to be unloaded and dismantled, then carried piecemeal over the slopes on the backs of cattle and drivers. By the 1750s negotiating the Pass had become extremely wearying, and a concerted effort was made to find

800-631: The old Dutch "landdrost" and courts of heemraden , instead substituting British-type resident magistrates , who would act only in English. Most of the Cape’s magistrates were also civil commissioners , in charge of civil divisions – the Cape Peninsula was a single division (the Cape division) with three magisterial districts: Cape Town , Wynberg and Simon’s Town . In the Boer republics, each proclaimed district had

832-479: The pass and its elevation above mean sea level . Apart from offering relatively easy travel between valleys, passes also provide a route between two mountain tops with a minimum of descent. As a result, it is common for tracks to meet at a pass; this often makes them convenient routes even when travelling between a summit and the valley floor. Passes traditionally were places for trade routes, communications, cultural exchange, military expeditions etc. A typical example

864-535: The passage of ox-wagons through the chain of unbroken mountains running north to south and isolating Cape Town from the interior - Gantouw Kloof in the south, Piekenierskloof Pass some 170 km north and the Roodezand Pass about midway between them. Pieter Potter was a surveyor who had been sent in 1658 by Jan van Riebeeck to barter cattle from the Khoi herders who were known to be in that area. His party camped at

896-604: The seat of the Tulbagh district to the new town of Worcester . It came to more gubernatorial significance in some of the Boer polities that seceded after the British took over the colony, notably: A similar gubernatorial role in other Boer polities was played by officials styled Kaptyn ('captain', in the original sense of Headman). In the Cape Colony , an ordinance passed in 1827 abolished

928-684: The similar bwlch (both being insular Celtic languages). In the Lake District of north-west England, the term hause is often used, although the term pass is also common—one distinction is that a pass can refer to a route, as well as the highest part thereof, while a hause is simply that highest part, often flattened somewhat into a high-level plateau. In Japan they are known as tōge , which means "pass" in Japanese. The word can also refer to narrow, winding roads that can be found in and around mountains and geographically similar areas, or specifically to

960-421: The southern end of Voëlvlei from where Potter climbed to the summit of the ridge nearby, but saw no cattle or herders. Returning to the foot of the mountain, he moved north to where the Klein Berg River issued from a precipitous gorge. Potter tried to negotiate the gorge, but the sheer cliffs eventually halted his progress. Retracing his steps, he ventured further north on the west flank of the range until he found

992-583: Was also introduced in the Dutch colony established at the Cape of Good Hope . The first was appointed in Stellenbosch , and further landdrosts were appointed as new districts were proclaimed: Drakenstein ( Paarl ), Swartland ( Malmesbury ), Tulbagh , Swellendam , Graaff-Reinet and Uitenhage . Under the British, new districts were created at George and Grahamstown ( Albany district), while Lord Charles Somerset moved

Nuwekloof Pass (Western Cape) - Misplaced Pages Continue

1024-618: Was known as the Roodezand Pass. To avoid confusion the original pass came to be called the Oude Roodezand Kloof, and the new one alongside the River duly became the Nieuwe Roodezand Kloof, names soon shortened to Oudekloof and Nieuwekloof. The easier access led to the valley's being used not only for stock farming, but also for the cultivation of vineyards, fruit and vegetables. The Swedish botanist, Carl Thunberg , travelled through

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