This superb Pass is rich in South African folklore, and we are the story of John Versfeld. He was a resourceful farmer from Bo-Piketberg who built the original pass in 3 months, with only 16 farm labourers. There are two Versfeld Passes in close proximity to each other. The original one lies slightly to the north-east of the current one and its path can still be seen, but it is no longer publicly accessible. The focus is on the existing Pass! The gradients of the new pass are up to good engineering standards; the road descends the mountain through a series of dizzying switchbacks. (Not many people know about this Pass.) It's narrow and very twisty, but although it was built in 1943 and widened and tarred in 1958, it offers a bountiful of delights as it ascends or descends the mountain to Piketberg. AS SEEN IN ONE OF THE PHOTOS
"The first pass, sometimes referred to as “Die Ossewapas” (the ox wagon pass) by the locals, was built from 9 km outside of Piketberg to the top of Piket-Bo-Berg, Mountain. The first Pass was built in 1889, by Johannes Paulus Eksteen Verfeld (John). Before the Pass was built, the journey to the top of the Mountain was a dangerous and a very slow trip, typically taking 4 hours to traverse the Mountain. Later it was recorded that John had many close encounters on these trips, where his children almost died! This only strengthened his belief that a Pass was needed! Soon after one of these trips, John went to the local government and petitioned for a Pass to be built; when John realised that the government of the time had no intent to build a Pass, so he set out to build one himself! As the story goes, John would go out of his house every day near sunset and go sit on a rock overlooking Piketberg in the Valley below, where he would sit smoking his pipe until sundown. He did this for about a month. One day he woke up in the middle of the night, looked at his watch glistening in the moonlight and shouted: “That's it… That is what I will do with my Pass!”. The shape he saw in the moonlight would later become the distinctive loops on the first Pass." Soon after that John set out to make his Pass. He hired 16 workers, and they started working on the first Pass. John supervised its building and was present every day from its start to its completion. He only stayed away on one day, which was for the birth of his son. Due to having built the Pass incorrectly the first time, the completion time took 3 months in total with a gradient of 1:4, at a cost of £200 or R400 (£32,000 or R750,000 in today's currency)
The first motor vehicles started to use the Pass in 1926 until in 1943 a man by the name of Christopher Armstrong from; 'Heldervue' Farm, realised that the Pass was no longer adequate for the standards of a modern Pass. He went to the local divisional counsel and advocated for a new Pass. Thus, the Mountain Pass was reconstructed 4 km closer to Piketberg, and named in honor of Versfeld for building the first one. Later on in 1958 the Pass was widened and then in addition to that, in 2017 the Pass's third wall was widened again.
