Montagu Pass is the original mountain road over the Outeniqua range, climbing out of George into the Klein Karoo. Built by convict labour and opened in 1847 under the direction of engineer Andrew Bain — the same man responsible for several of the Western Cape's great mountain passes — it was for almost a century the main route over the mountains until the modern Outeniqua Pass replaced it in 1951. Today it survives as a preserved heritage route, a gravel road that almost no one is in a hurry to drive.
The pass runs roughly 12 kilometres of narrow, hand-built road, with dry-stone retaining walls and stone bridges that are still in use more than 175 years after they were laid. It snakes through dense indigenous yellowwood forest, crosses several mountain streams, and passes the old toll house at the top. The climb is slow and the surface is gravel, but in dry conditions an ordinary car will manage it comfortably; the reward is a route that sees almost no traffic and feels much closer to the landscape than the tar road alongside it.
From the upper sections the views back over George, the Outeniqua foothills, and the coastal plain are better than anything you get from the modern pass, and the forest is noticeably denser and quieter. The old railway line over the mountains runs parallel for part of the way, adding to the sense of travelling through a working piece of history.
It makes an easy half-day outing from George — drive up Montagu Pass and come back over the modern Outeniqua Pass for the contrast, or continue north toward Oudtshoorn and the Klein Karoo. Avoid it after heavy rain, when the gravel can wash out and sections may be closed.