Travelling along the N2 towards the Garden Route from Port Elizabeth, most people cross over the Van Stadens River Bridge in seconds as they hurry along. I often wonder how many of those have ever taken the time to take a leisurely drive along the pass on the old road. At the bottom of the pass one can pull over and enjoy the view, both up towards the bridge as well as down the gorge. It felt like such a peaceful spot with the river flowing in between the boulders that it felt a pity when we had to leave again.
Great Pic Firefly – Looks like van Stadens is getting quite a bit of exposure lately.
Nice angle. I remember crossing several of these awesome arched bridges.
For overseas blogger it may be interesting to know that the bridge is thought of as being 'cursed'. The engineer was not fully satisfied as a minute error made it less pefect than he intended, and he was the 1st person to commit suiside over it. Near 50 suisides have been commited since. Also, it was for many years a satanic haunt until a church erected a fluorescent cross on the ridge overlooking it some years ago.
Looks like I'll add another pass to my list for the next visit.
I like your Google Map references. It really helps to visualize the location!Margaret
The Van Stadens curse does the bridge, pass and gorge no justice. The Old Pass is such a leisurely drive, and belies the stigma that surrounds Van Stadens. Also, it is a dream of mine to one day travel from Cape Town to PE via the 'old' route, which must not be rushed at all, especially coming through the Wilderness!
I love the fact that I can mark the posts on Google Maps. Specially nice for somebody who decideds to visit somewhere I blogged about
I would also love to travel the old road from point to point. There is something special about passes and we are fortunate to have many of those around South Africa