Houw Hoek Pass(es) Short Multi
***The posted coordinates are for the entrance to the farm stall***
This short multi can be done in <20 minutes during a visit to the farm stall – a popular long-established stopping off point some 2.2km west of the summit of this pass – especially for those travelling to Cape Town. The cache, a small camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden in the grounds of the establishment only ~50m from the main building.
Thanks are due to the owners of the farm stall for their kind permission to place the cache. It is open 07h30-17h00 daily.
To Find the Cache:
Step 1: After parking your cachemobile, head for S 34 12.406 E 19 08.915 near the farm stall entrance where you will see a plaque on the wall relating to Cape Overberg Meander. The farm stall is member number 3A
Step 2: Walk across to the two information signs @ S 34 12.399 E 19 08.898.
On the Leopards in the Fynbos sign, you will learn that the average mass of a male (fynbos) Cape Leopard is B5 kg.
On the same sign . . . C threats to leopard survival in the Cape are described and D predators are pictured in the Mammals from the Past box
On the Houw Hoek Pass sign the altitude of the sign is given as 29Em
On the rear of this sign is a different kind of Geocache! Its number is F/3/R where the value of F is required. (The website shown for this is suspended so no further info is available)
Step 3: Now walk down across the grass to the old graveyard @ S 34 12.378 E 19 08.885. Inside this walled area you will find the headstone of William Aspinall who passed away on 29th June 190G
The cache is hidden at:
S 34 12.DB(G+3) E 19 08.(A+3)(C+1)E
There are two Houw Hoek Passes, the new one (the tarred N2) and the old Houw Hoek Pass (aka the Railway Pass) for the Overberg branch line as well as the gravel road which follows the rail line along a similar route but closer to the Jakkals River.
The Pass lies between the towns of Grabouw and Botrivier and to reach it from Cape Town one has to first crest Sir Lowry's Pass, then there is a 25km stretch between the two passes, known as Cole's Pass.
The Pass was pioneered (first traversed) by the Swedish Ensign Olof Bergh in 1682. He had been sent by Cape Governor Simon Van der Stel to explore routes from the Cape into the interior. A rough pass was gradually established thereafter.
The new Pass was built shortly after Sir Lowry's Pass and Cole’s Pass were completed in 1830. The name Houw Hoek translates into 'Hold Corner' and is derived from the need to hold back, or slow down the ox-wagons whilst negotiating the steep descent down the pass.
[Old Houw Hoek (or Railway) Pass
This lovely, old - and very well designed - pass is not maintained and unfortunately is only suitable for 4WD vehicles with good ground clearance. There were a total of four passes built down the mountainside since the 1700s. This was the third road towards the Overberg and was re-constructed in 1904 to compliment the railway line. The route was very cleverly planned to allow for a major climb to take place at very comfortable gradients. The old pass is in a picturesque setting as it follows the course of the Jakkals River, which is a tributary of the Bot River. The river shares the narrow ravine with the road and the railway line. Sections of the pass fall within or close to, the Houw Hoek Nature Reserve. See here for a short video of a motorcycle crossing this pass]
While Sir Lowry’s Pass gave easier access to Grabouw and was a gateway to the Overberg, the descent on the eastern side needed serious attention.
As part of the Sir Lowry’s Pass project, Charles Michell the first Surveyor General in the Cape built the Pass but fell very short of funds. Considered of far lesser importance than Sir Lowry’s, it was completed 9 months after the main project in early 1831.
With its completion, the Overberg became far more accessible. The transition from subsistence farming to market farming became more attractive and gained momentum, and the standard of living in the interior improved dramatically as a result thereof.
Cole’s Pass straddles two previously problematic rivers, the Steenbras and the Palmiet. A pontoon operated at the Palmiet at the turn of the 19th Century, and a bridge was built in 1811, the first in the country to be built outside of a town - it is not the bridge which the N2 crosses – that was built in 1958.
Houwhoek Pass was built somewhat on the cheap after Sir Lowry Cole had been rapped across the knuckles for spending public money without the approval of the Crown. The old Pass, having been damaged by heavy ox wagons, had to be rebuilt by Andrew Geddes Bain 15 years later in 1846. The current four-lane partial dual-carriageway format of the new Pass was completed in 1976.
Entering the Pass from the Grabouw (west) side, The Houw Hoek Inn (the oldest in the country - and location of two caches, GC69BHJ The Oldest, Part 1: Piney Shade and GC7HA6N The Oldest, Part 2: Oaky Shade - and opposite this, the Farm Stall (with the authentic South African architecture of a white farmhouse style building complete with a green corrugated iron roof and lined with blossoms) are landmarks on the pass which only properly begins 2km east of these as it climbs up to the summit and then descends steeply as it enters into the Overberg - the scenery changing dramatically during the descent.
After the Inn, the deep gorges visible from the pass are magnificent - lush and green with vegetation. The 
top of the Houwhoek Pass at 352m* is like a portal to the Overberg, and the farmlands stretching out ahead are a wonderful sight in the late winter awash with the green hues of crops such as wheat and barley and the contrasting bright yellow of canola.
See here for comprehensive information on the pass including flora, fauna, and trails. See here for a short video on crossing the new Pass and here for one on traversing the old Pass
*There is some confusion over the height of the pass, shown as 352m on the sign at the farm stall, but (officially & also in Wikipedia) as 340m, on the signs on both sides of each direction of the dual carriageway of the N2 @ S 34 12.925 E 19 10.279 (eastbound) and S 34 13.037 E 19 10.366 (westbound). All these signs are placed 100-150m before the actual summits which appear (Google Earth) to be actually ~338m or ~348m respectively.