Trifter

When you visit Montagu in the Karoo, you travel up a valley from Ashton to get to this quiet country town. In this small town you will find more history than you would find in most school books.

The first is outside of Montagu, two or three km before you reach the actual town bowndry. It sits on a small ridge high above the valley, keeping watch over time and tide.

We actually travelled under it a few times before we realised it were up there on the rock. It is an old Fort built by the British way back when to secure the border and prevent any more stragglers to flee the colony.  Its very well placed because before the road were built the only (safest and fastest) route through the mountain were up the river. From the fort you had a clear view and clear shot of anything coming or going. The view from up there is worth the climb. I put a few more pictures of this on my blog, here you can see the view through one of the shooting holes though.

Right below the fort is where the road runs now days, an engineering feat for its time. They blasted a tunnel through solid rock, about 30 meters in length, making road engineering history. This was a first in this country. Today it would just be another small job, but in those days it was a maveric of engineering.

This is just some of the things you will see in Montagu.