Love & vision on the Spreetshoogte Pass

With vision - and love - everything is possible, as seen in the story of one of Namibia’s highest and most scenic passes, Spreetshoogte, where the Khomas Hochland merges gracefully with the Namib Desert.

From the top of Spreetshoogte Pass, travellers can appreciate the grand vista across the Great Escarpment from an elevation of 1 676 metres. Few are aware that we have the opportunity to experience the vista and traverse the pass, one of the shortest and most dramatic routes to the desert, thanks to an industrious man, Nicolaas Andries Rymert Spreeth, and his vision.

Or maybe it was sheer will, iron grit and more determination than many of us possess in a single lifetime. Born shortly after the turn of the twentieth century in 1904 on South Africa’s west coast, Spreeth moved to southern Namibia in his adult years to work as a foreman. In time he bought the farm Ubib at the base of the mountain to farm goats and karakul. But, living at the bottom of a mountain had its disadvantages. Provisions purchased in town arrived by bus on the plateau and had to be collected. For lack of a road, his team of donkeys clambered up zebra paths to the bus stop to collect the supplies. From there they made the return trip, carrying the provisions all the way back down to the farm, a laborious and exhausting undertaking. At the time, the Remhoogte Pass had already been built, but the route required a detour which took days to negotiate.

Not easily discouraged, Spreeth had a plan. He understood the wisdom of the old adage that every journey begins with a single step, and he understood that every mountain pass begins with one rock. Every time his donkeys went up the mountain, they would carry several quartzite rocks, which he would place along the route, thus gradually marking out a path. From the bottom of the mountain, his family watched the line of white stones grow as it made its way up the mountain journey by journey.

In this way, Spreetshoogte (Spreeth’s Heights) Pass had its humble beginnings. During the war years, with no specific qualifications and without the convenience and ease of any machinery, Spreeth began to build a road using dynamite and manual labour. Because of the steepness, ramps had to be built so drivers could reverse to build up additional momentum and speed. Even today, with more robust vehicles, a paved road and a speed limit of 20km/hour, you can smell the acrid odour of overheated components as your vehicle struggles with the gradient.

Nicolaas had another vision: to make the superlative scenery available to everyone. This he also accomplished. He was particularly proud of the viewpoint at the summit of the pass which provides one of the most breathtaking vistas in Namibia, encompassing the desert plains in the arms of the Great Escarpment.

Although today the original clay-built Ubib farmhouse is in ruins, Spreetshoogte Pass - between Nauchas and Solitaire - remains one of Namibia’s most well-travelled passes, enabling travellers to traverse the mountainous route from Windhoek and Rehoboth. It is regarded as one of the gateways to the Namib Desert.

We learn from Spreeth that often in life great endeavours start small out of pure practicality. Journeys begin step by step, massive trees grow from small seeds and big ventures start from basics; but occasionally there are those folk who leap and there are always those who dream. And of course, we learn that everything is possible, one rock at a time.

We also learn that anything is possible with love, as we have been reminded recently by long-distance runner Thomas Miller. Twenty-seven-year-old Thomas, who holds records for many of Gondwana’s trail runs, finished first in Gondwana’s gruelling 21km Spreetshoogte Challenge, which took place for the first time in June, putting runners through their paces as they tackled the steep incline from the desert.

For Thomas, running and love are part of the very same story. It all began when he was eighteen, living on a remote farm in Helmeringhausen, southern Namibia, where he was home-schooled. His girlfriend Monique, however, lived more than a thousand kilometres away in Oshakati. And the weak signal on Thomas’s family’s farm meant that he had to run up a hill on the neighbouring farm, seven kilometres away, to speak to his beloved. Thomas’s fitness levels rose as his relationship grew, and he started to enter and win trail-running events. Now a medical graduate doing his internship, he continues to run, accumulating prize money to cover their wedding costs. The many accommodation-vouchers he’s received as prizes at the events will ensure that the couple has a splendid honeymoon, celebrating their union at Gondwana’s lodges countrywide. His love story adds to the inspiring story of Spreetshoogte Pass, of how dreams and love can move mountains.

Gondwana took it up a notch, demonstrating that LOVE can be shared and spread even further. As part of their Care Trust’s ‘Hearts across Horizons’ project, a large heart-shaped frame has been placed at the Spreetshoogte Pass viewpoint. It joins the other heart frames at Gondwana’s lodges, from the Fish River Canyon to the Zambezi, to symbolise the company’s dedication to community upliftment and environmental conservation, spreading the love. The hearts have provided wonderful photo opportunities for travellers, who are captured in the hearts with magnificent Namibian landscapes as a backdrop, and have even provided the ideal place for a wedding proposal.

May the love and vision live on.