Page 64 - Bulletin 13 2009

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 at cabanes de pechures, Fish Hoek, the coast was the best road at low tide but
the inland road had to be followed at high tide, and there was no danger of

being swallowed in the quicksands as earlier travellers had averred;
 La Trappe presented special difficulties on account of its rockiness and
steepness and would allow construction of only a very narrow road;

 from Kalk Bay to Muizenberg there were no special difficulties but the great
numbers of streams along this section would require the construction of
stone-lined ditches under the road to carry the water away.

He, wisely, declined to estimate the costs involved because of the difficulty of

accounting for unexpected conditions. For this reason he believed it was a job for the
state rather than a private contractor. It would be “a stiff piece of work” requiring an

intelligent supervisor and 50 to 60 well-equipped men together with their lodgings. (de

Puyfontaine, 68–70).

Thibault did not live to see the road completed for he died in 1815 and the work was

directed by his former assistant John Melvill, in collaboration with the engineer John
Chisholm. Chisholm’s three invoices, neatly written in blue ink, for expenses incurred

between November 1817 and June 1818, totalling some 2,741 RiksDollars, can be
viewed in the W. Cape Archives. (File CO 91, Docs 13, 27, & 48).

nd
The labour force was drawn from the 72 (Duke of Albany’s Own Highlanders) and
rd
83 (Royal Irish Rifles) regiments and by November 1815 Somerset was able to report
that much had been accomplished and completion was expected during the coming year.
“A great part of this line of road is thro’ a loose sand intersected by morasses and

ravines, and had been a work of great labour and expense to execute.” (Theal, 1902:
374). Unfortunately, the official histories of these regiments make no mention of this

work, provide no drawings or sketches of the activity, and confine themselves to details
of military postings and campaigns.

It was at this time that the toll at Kalk Bay, (near later Dalebrook) was moved to
Muizenberg where it was more effectively associated with the military installations.