Nuwekloof Pass

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 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 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 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 R

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