Du Toitskloof Pass
R101 (old N1), between Paarl and the Breede River valley
Built by Italian prisoners of war in the 1940s and bypassed by the Huguenot Tunnel in 1988. Now one of the Cape’s great quiet scenic drives.
The kloof takes its name from François du Toit, a Huguenot settler granted land at its foot in the 1690s. The modern pass, though, is a Second World War story: from 1942 around 500 Italian prisoners of war, renowned road-builders, cut the route through the mountains under the National Roads Council, and civilian crews completed it in 1949 at a cost of some £750,000. Their stonework is still visible along the old road.
In March 1988 the Huguenot Tunnel took the N1 straight through the mountain, trimming 11 kilometres and twenty-odd minutes off the crossing, and in doing so gave the old pass a second life. Re-numbered the R101, it is now a gloriously quiet scenic drive, sweeping high above Paarl and the Berg River valley.
Take it instead of the tunnel when you have half an hour to spare: viewpoints at every turn, popular with cyclists and bikers, and keep an eye out for baboons on the verges.