When newly-married Frances McDonald, heroine of The Fire Portrait, sets off on her new life with her husband to Aloe Glen, on the edge of the Karoo, the journey is a challenging one. It is the 1930s, and the road between Wellington and Worcester takes them over the precipitous Bain's Kloof Pass.
This famous Pass rises from sea level to an altitude of 610m - close on 2000ft - and winds for over 25 km through the mountain chain that divides the Cape Peninsula from the interior of South Africa. The Pass, now a National Monument, was designed and built by Andrew Geddes Bain between 1849 and 1853, utilising mainly convict labour. It became the main route from Cape Town to the north. Bain, born in Scotland, was a largely self-taught engineer and geologist who, it is said, had "instinctive" engineering skills. He was fascinated by the fossils he encountered on his projects and presented his findings to the Royal Geological Society in London. Besides fossil-hunting, Bain also built at least five other Passes and was something of a wit. In his resting moments, he invented a gossipy character whom he called Katjie Kekkelbek, who became famous in her own right.
The steep climb up Bain's Kloof proves to be a challenge for Julian McDonald's motor car in the 1930s! Frances worries that the engine will overheat or that they might overturn on the steep curves. They stop at the summit to give the motor a rest - and, inadvertently, for Frances to see what she is leaving behind.
I stumbled out of the car.
The valley brooded far below, farm dams glittered like shiny pennies.
The mountains of the Peninsula scribbled a distant line, Protea Rise hidden somewhere among them.
My life will circle back. It must. One day...
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