Meiringspoort

Meiringspoort takes the N12 through the Swartberg along the bed of the Groot River, and because the road follows the water rather than climbing over the range it crosses the river twenty-five times in about seventeen kilometres. The walls are the attraction: Table Mountain sandstone tilted and folded into curves and near-vertical bands, coloured red and orange by iron oxide, rising steeply on both sides. A short walk from a parking area leads to a waterfall with a dark pool, said in local tradition to hold a mermaid. It opened in 1858 and has been rebuilt repeatedly - floods in 1996 destroyed much of the road and it was reconstructed with stronger crossings, but the poort still closes when the river comes down hard. Unlike the Swartberg Pass a few kilometres west, this one is tar and easy, which makes it the alternative for anyone not wanting gravel.

History

The Swartberg long formed an almost impassable barrier between the Little and the Great Karoo, and though the Khoi-San people living on both sides surely crossed it, no crossing was recorded until 1800, when Petrus Johannes Meiring, a farmer from De Rust, came through here; with Gerome Marincowitz from the north he opened a bridle path along the river and campaigned for a pass. In August 1854 John Molteno, newly elected to the Cape Parliament for much of the Great Karoo, rode out from Beaufort West with the road engineers Andrew Geddes Bain and Thomas Bain to explore the range, and his report chose this route over the Bains' easier line 50 kilometres east, which would have added four or five days to every journey. A select committee funded it in 1856, it was built by paid labourers rather than convicts, as was then common, and work began in August 1856 at a final cost of £5,018 against a budget of £5,000, to link the Karoo with the port of Mossel Bay (Wikipedia, Meiringspoort).

What's there

• The twenty-five crossings - a road that fords the same river repeatedly through the gorge.
• The folded cliffs - red and orange sandstone bent into curves and vertical bands.
• The waterfall pool - a short walk to a dark pool with a mermaid tradition attached.
• The tarred alternative - the easy route through the Swartberg beside the gravel pass.

When to go

All year. One to two hours with stops. Check road status in heavy rain.

Good to know

Floods close the poort and have destroyed the road before - it is not a route to attempt in a storm. It is a national road with trucks, so stopping places are limited. The waterfall shrinks in dry seasons.

Nearby

The Swartberg Pass is west; De Rust and Oudtshoorn are south.

Key facts