Bon Game Reserve

All our guests are captivated by the bridges; each one carries a memory that inspires nostalgia.

Some fondly remember their youthful days, joyfully jumping off the bridge when the bungee was open. Others reflect on even earlier times.

One question remains: why are there three bridges?

The Gourits River, which runs past Bon Game Private Reserve, is spanned by three notable bridges, each with its own story, and each reflecting a distinct phase in the region’s infrastructural development.

In late Victorian times, Mossel Bay became a booming harbour town, which required reliable road and rail connections to neighbouring areas and to Cape Town. The Gourits River, which had a steep gorge, created an obstacle.

The Gourits River is by far the most important river in the South Western Cape. From the Great Karoo, the Gamka and the Dwyka rivers feed into it, and as it passes through the Swartberg and Outeniqua ranges, it picks up the waters of the Little Karoo from Ladismith to Oudtshoorn and cuts through the coastal plain in a great deep gorge to the sea.

A post in the “Old Mossel Bay” public Facebook group in 2021 refers to a map dated 1489, on which the river was shown as the Rio della Vache. It was also known as the Rio das Vaccas (river of cows) and it was described as treacherous due to the river being prone to heavy flash flooding, and when in flood it could not be traversed. Man-made crossings were easily swept away by flood waters.

The road and rail engineers of that era had their work cut out for them; therefore, they opted for a bridge high across a deep gorge to ensure that the road remains open when the river is in flood.