After being closed for several years due to rock
slides and unstable cliff faces, this fantastically scenic drive has
reopened after a major reconstruction that involved state-of-the-art
engineering techniques, some of which had never been used on South African
roads. But that wasn't the first engineering feat for this road that
clings to the mountainside. Work began on the drive in 1910, when it was
considered an impossibility. Charl Marais, a mining surveyor, wasn't
deterred by the task and set about surveying a route by sending a worker
ahead of him to chop out footholds and create rudimentary platforms for
his theodolite. There are stories of him hanging on to the side of the
cliff by ropes and nearly losing his life on a number of occasions. His
tenacity paid off, and, with the help of 700 convicts, dynamite, picks,
and shovels, a road was chipped and blasted out of the rock. Chapman's
Peak Drive officially opened in 1922. A reporter from a local newspaper
waxed lyrical, writing that the road was much like a woman, "always
changing, luring, and at moments giving you a quick sense of danger." You
can access the drive from both Noordhoek and Hout Bay.
