A Colossus of Roads - THOMAS BAIN - Patricia Storrar & Gunther Komnick

1984, Hardcover with dustcover, 108 pages. Good condition. Tightly bound. Some edgewear on dustcover and hardcover.

The average traveller gives little thought to the engineering skills, hard work and often dangerous conditions that were faced by Thomas Charles John Bain (1830-1893) in his great road-making career: Some of Bains century-old roads are still in use today and the magnificent dry-stone walling stands intact in passes such as Prince Alfreds, Swartberg and Van Rhyns; Bains abandoned road through Cogmans Kloof again became the only means of access to Montagu during the disastrous floods in 1980 and only in 1983 was his ambitious Tsitsikama Road, from Knysna to Humansdorp, superseded by a sweeping throughway with links of magnificent bridges. Bain constructed twenty-three major mountain roads and so outshone even his father, Andrew Geddes Bain (1797-1864), as a road builder. It was from him that Thomas inherited his wide-ranging mind and deep interest in the natural sciences, especially geology. In order to make the publication of the book feasible, it is being sponsored by Murray & Roberts in conjunction with Concor. Patricia Storrar, author of George Rex and Plettenberg Bay, has delved deeply into the records of Thomass life, his hand-made roads, varied hobbies and family life. She has produced an exciting and authoritative account of his pioneering achievements in the Cape Colony. The story is greatly enhanced by Gunther Komnicks splendid photography of the kloofs, valleys and timeless mountains which Thomas Bain set out to broach more than a hundred years ago.