Then and Now – Van Stadens Pass drift
Approaching Port Elizabeth from the west you have to drive over the Van Stadens River Bridge about 40 kilometres outside of town. Looking down into the gorge you can just imagine what an effort it must have been getting through that back in the earlier days. The river was named after one of the area's pioneer farmers - Marthinus van Staden, who was the first person to plot a basic route through the gorge in the 1850's. In 1867 Thomas Bain rebuild the…