Long live Long Tom Pass!

Years ago, people crossed Long Tom Pass on foot and with ox-wagons, on their journey to the harbour at present-day Maputo. The old trade route has become a spectacular drive, with lots of interesting stops along the way. Here are five top places to stay.

- MIA LOUW

Long Tom Pass links Mashishing (Lydenburg) on the Mpumalanga escarpment with Sabie in the Lowveld. Your drive might start off sunny, with views of grassland and pine plantations, but there’s a good chance you’ll soon be enveloped in mist. Long Tom is 26km long and its summit is at 2150m above sea level. From there, it loses 670m in altitude as it snakes down the slopes of the northern Drakensberg.

Just think how inaccessible these mountains must have been in the 1840s, when transport riders drove their ox-wagons through the bush to Delagoa Bay (Maputo).

And long before then, between 1500 and 1820, the Bokoni people crossed these mountains on foot. They lived between present-day Carolina and Ohrigstad and farmed using terraces. On some of the farms in the area you can see the ruins of their stone kraals, like faded tattoos in the grass.

Remnants of the ox-wagon routes are also still visible next to the R37, as are marks left during the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902).

I’m exploring the pass with historian Gerrit Haarhoff, author of the book, Forgotten Tracks and Trails of the Escarpment and the Lowveld. We’ve just departed from Mashishing. After 17km we notice two signs close together: One indicates the highest point on the pass; the other reads, “Mauchsberg”.

“The sign is wrong,” says Gerrit, pointing in the direction of Sabie. “Mauchsberg is that one, with the tower. It’s the highest peak on the pass, not the highest point on the road.”

“So, what’s this hill called then?” I ask.

“Bôggerol,” he replies.