Robbers Pass

Robbers Pass is situated in the Mpumalanga province, on the R533 between Ohrigstad and Pilgrims Rest (South Africa). The pass offers diverse scenery through an area steeped in history and stories of robbers who found gold in the area. Landmarks include the Robbers Grave which is near Pilgrims Rest, a village from the gold discovery days that is now preserved as a tourist attraction. In 1897 two masked and armed highwaymen held up the stage coach and robbed it of £10 000 worth of gold. They were never brought to justice. The second robbery (in the exact same spot) happened 15 years later (1912). On 20 October 1969 The Star published the first-hand recollection of Willem Albertus Koeleman. He was in the coach on that particular day. Koeleman and his brother, Ben Koeleman, were the owners of the W & B Koeleman Hotel at Krugerspost. Krugerspost was a well-known halfway station between Ohrigstad and Lydenburg. Stage coaches stopped there a few times a day on their way to the Pilgrim’s Rest gold fields and Lorenzo Marques (Mozambique). This was Koeleman’s first-hand recollection of the robbery: "It happened in the early moning of 9 December 1897, not far from Pilgrim’s Rest on top of a steep hill knows as Poniesnek. I was 26 and on my way to Lydenburg. A piece of rusted corrugated iron had damaged the hoof of my horse and I had to take the stage coach. My employer handed me about

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