Page 44 - Bulletin 14 2010

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contemporary built-up areas. He found the maps invaluable and stated that “….. it is
comparatively easy to trace a route with the aid of the contours shown on these maps …. There is

very little difficulty in tracing the general route of the old road up to the Noord Hoek Road.”
(ibid. 990.)

In 1937 he published a 12-page article in the August edition of the SAR & H Magazine in which
he concluded unequivocally: “The old road must have been the only road for vehicular traffic up

to, say, 1780, from Steenberg right through to Simonstown.” (Italics in the original.) He included
a map of the 10-mile route that he titled Die Ou Pad drawn as a dashed line ascending from

Steenberg farm onto the plateau where it ran through the farm Klein Plaats, then past Bok Kop,
downslope towards the Noordhoek salt pan where it swung southwards over Brakkloof

(approximately today’s Black Hill), down the Elsjes valley past Welcome Cottage to the mouth

of the Elsjes river, before running along the coast to Simon’s Bay. (Fig. 2.1.) He also showed
another route farther to the south titled Ou Zand Weg, running from Imhoff’s Gift over the Red

Hill plateau and down into Simon’s Town.

Subsequent issues of the magazine carried no articles disputing or confirming his hypothesis and

it is not known what contemporary historians thought of it. But local Cape Divisional Councillor
Lionel Gill was interested and by degrees their mutual interest turned from the historic past

towards the anticipated future and the prospect of constructing a modern mountain route to
provide an alternative strategic connection between Simon’s Town and Cape Town, open up new

recreational and tourist amenities on the mountain, and ease congestion on the coastal Main

Road. (Fig. 2.2.) Some of the subsequent letters written to the Editor of the Cape Times by
members of the public dismissed the strategic / military argument while acknowledging the

tourism and by-pass advantages.