Page 43 - Bulletin 14 2010

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MYTHS AND MYSTERIES OF THE OU KAAPSE WEG

Derek Stuart-Findlay

Introduction

The myth of the Ou Kaapse Weg originated with Mr. R. C. Wallace of Fish Hoek. He had settled
there in 1928 after retiring from the SAR & H where he was Chief Engineer. Fish Hoek at that

time was a largely undeveloped sandy plain but it was changing rapidly. Ten years earlier, in
1918, the farm Visch Hoek had been subdivided into 540 plots, and in 1920 a further 230 came on

the market when nearby Kleintuin at Clovelly was split up. Already in 1920 some 152 dwellings

were in existence and a further 123 were under construction. (Cobern, 2003.)

Wallace was evidently intrigued by the network of old paths and tracks that ran across the valley

floor and, in places, over the mountains. He began investigations which focused on a question
that he stated in this way in a 1937 article: “…..I became interested as to how traffic with wagons

drawn by oxen or horses first reached the Baai Fals (Simonstown) from Die Kaap (Cape Town).”
(Wallace 1937: 989.)

He spent time at the National Library reading the accounts of early travellers, carried out searches

at the Archives, and examined plans of early title deeds of properties between Constantia and

Simon’s Town. But he found no precise or definite information that satisfied him. Of the maps
and plans he stated: “There was nothing on the maps to indicate that there was a road of any sort

over the mountains from Constantia up to the farm Silvermine C.Q. 150.” (ibid.)

But there was anecdotal evidence that an old track ascended the Steenbergen from the farm
Steenberg. So he undertook explorations there on foot, guided by what he could see, and later by

the 1: 25,000 Cape Peninsula topo-cadastral maps published in 1933 by the Trigonometrical

Survey Office, Mowbray. These showed contours and rivers, roads and tracks, farmlands, and