PLEASE NOTE: Bring your own pen to sign logbook. Please place cache back exactly as you found it.
Shaws pass was named after lieutenant Colonel William S Shaw, an ex-Indian army officer who settled close to in the Cape in 1839, and who introduced merino sheep to the area. His farm was known as Truyntjiesrivier, but he renamed it Muirton after his family's farm in Scotland.
Whilst out this way you will be able to stop at more than a few wine farms, and the town of Tesselaarsdal, a little village surrounded by cattle, sheep, pig, horse, wild fynbos and lavender farms.
Shaw's Pass is also home to rare Overberg Sandstone Fynbos, found on low mountains and plains where the soil is acidic. Whilst it is the least threatened on a national basis, only 6% of the target 30% is conserved.
If you are prepared to stop, sit and wait, you might even catch sight of the Robertson's Blue butterfly, and the landscape at Shaw's Pass will entice all photographers with its variability and beauty.
Shaw's Mountain Pass traverses on the R320 route between Caledon in the north and Hermanus in the south. The 6 km long pass descends 185m from a maximum altitude of 282m ASL providing sweeping views of the farming valleys to the south. It contains 15 bends, corners and curves of which only one exceeds 90 degrees.
The pass offers attractive scenery over one of the most beautiful valleys of the Overberg, where proteas, fynbos and wildflowers abound. The pass was completely realigned and rebuilt during 2017 and is perfectly safe for all vehicle types. Note that a lower than normal speed limit of 80 kph applies.