Thomas Bain

Thomas Bain's Prince Alfred Pass.

© Chris Marais

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The craggy mountain passes of the Western Cape are a road tripper’s delight. At once daunting and awe-inspiring, high-altitude crossings like the Prince Alfred’s Pass, the Robinson Pass, the Pakhuis Pas, the Tradouw Pass and the legendary Swartberg Pass make for easy driving in modern cars. And you can’t help but wonder at the mastery of the man who built them.

Take a bow, Thomas Bain.

Of course, with a dad like Andrew Geddes Bain, chances are you’ll end up with a measure of road-building expertise. AG Bain was a saddler and then a soldier in the Eastern Cape town of Graaff-Reinet, a southern African explorer and a fossil hunter. He was also known as the ‘father of South African geology’ and supervised the building of 8 mountain passes in the old Cape Colony of Queen Victoria’s time.

His son Thomas (1830-1893) took the reins from AG and went on to build 24 mountain passes, thereby opening up access between the Cape and the rest of Africa.

Bain Jnr was a busy man throughout his 63 years, 40 of which were spent in service of various Cape infrastructure projects. He and his wife Johanna had 13 children during this time. He also became a noted botanist, archaeologist, Karoo water researcher, magistrate and artist, producing fine maps and tracing ancient San paintings he came across during his project work.

As you drive today on, say, the Swartberg Pass between Prince Albert and Oudtshoorn, you cannot help but marvel at the dry stone walling that has held this superb road in place for more than 130 years. Thomas Bain just seemed to have the knack of things.

And yet, as if his worldly achievements weren’t accolades enough, Thomas was also known as an excellent ‘people's’ person’. He was uncommonly kind and thoughtful to the prison gangs who worked on his passes, he was a great father and husband, and a wonderful travelling companion to his fellow-adventurers.

After 4 decades of intense fieldwork – sometimes involving 3 major projects simultaneously – Thomas Bain settled with his family in their Cape Town home. But he wasn’t still for long. His last major job was to build Victoria Road from Sea Point to Hout Bay on the Cape Peninsula. So as you’re driving, 1 eye on the road and the other on distant ocean sights, remember the man who built all this – long before the age of motor cars...