NATURAL & HISTORICAL SITES

9 : Bokpoort Pass

This is the pass that the writer, poet and ethnologist, Eugène Marais, who lived for several years at Doornhoek near Mookgophong, most often used to enter the interior to hunt and to visit. It was at Doornhoek that Marais did his work on termites and baboons; and it was up this pass that he first observed and collected specimens of a cycad which was posthumously named in his honour - Encephlalartos eugene-maraisii.  Presently these very rare cycads are only found in two localities in the Waterberg.

At the top of the pass, where the tar road ends, is the farm Pure Krans, once the home of a colorful farmer and friend of Marais, "Purekrans" van Rooyen, who was involved in many brushes with the law.  The source of the Palala River is on the northern slopes immediately west of the top of the pass. As is the case with the majority of passes in the Waterberg, a crystal clear stream runs alongside the road.