Page 118 - Bulletin 9 2005

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“The road to Groote Schuur will be completed about March next, and a substantial
advance has been made with the work at Miller’s Point and Smit’s Winkel Bay. Work is
also proceeding on the road above Simon’s Town, and necessary surveys have been made
between Hout Bay and Noordhoek, where work of considerable difficulty and magnitude
had to be provided for.
“The Government was prepared to provide for these works the labour of some 700
convicts, about 325 of whom are already at work. The Provincial Council has voted funds
during two successive years for the project, and further grants will be made from time to
time. When completed, the future maintenance and preservation of these additions to the
attractions of the Peninsula will be handed over to the local authorities.
“Now, with all these advantages, we are giving birth to one great government and
the co-ordination of the work, and with the improvements that will follow in the general
health of the district a great future, I believe, lies before the Council. The time will come
when Capetown will become one of the best and greatest cities in the world. Where will
you find a city in the world that lies between two oceans?”

In anticipation of the eventual road to Cape Point a car, known as a Dodson Valveless,

became, in August 1913, the first mechanically-propelled vehicle ever to reach Cape Point
and climb the path up to the lighthouse. The Valveless was of unconventional design with a

high clearance and hefty 20 horse-power, two-cylinder 2-stroke engine, with exceptional

low-speed pulling ability. (Figs 3.9 & 3.10.) The route taken started opposite Admiralty
House where the old Red Hill road ran upwards diagonally for about a mile across

“exceptionally stiff gradients” between 1 in 7.5 and 1 in 5.5, before reaching the summit.
The made road then terminated about 6 miles from Simon’s Town and thereafter the route

southward deteriorated into mixtures of deep soft sand, rocks, and peaty bog. It seems they
took about 6 hours to reach Smith’s Farm after leaving Simon’s Town. “The puzzled

farmer at once came out, thinking that someone was playing a practical joke upon him by

blowing a motor horn at his back door. His look of abject astonishment when he perceived
the car was a sight to see, and glancing all round with an air of rank incredulity he walked

up to the party and asked in all seriousness if they had come by aeroplane!” (The Motor,

25/2/1914).

The next morning the journey continued. “Watching the car plunging and tossing along