Today was a red-letter day - we had a lofty ambition: to go and find South Africa's oldest active geocache. When geocaching was still very new, a certain Prof Charles Merry planted a cache in the
Silvermine reserve overlooking Houtbay and the Sentinel peak. This was a landmark we wanted to achieve.
But there was some housekeeping to do: Brenda wanted to get some of our laundry done and my wounds needed a bit of attention. The "Ou Skip" caravan park is a lovely spot and has a good laundry and nice jungle gyms. We took a slow morning while we did a few chores and caught up on email and logging all the caches we had found.
Then we headed for the Silvermine reserve which is at the top of Ou Kaapse weg. The travelling took us longer than expected and we got there in the mid afternoon. We decided to take the slightly longer route around, via Elephants Eye cave, as there were other treasures to be found. (You can see a profile of what we walked on the left.)
As it turned out, this was very hilly but with I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E views over the Cape Flats on one side,
Fishhoek and Simon's town on another and then Noordhoek and Kommetjie on the other. We hiked hard, carrying Jemma (and Caleb occasionally) on our shoulders. We saw the sunset colours, the Slangkop lighthouse we'd been to the day before and even a rainbow over Fishhoek and the Cape Flats!
Eventually we got to the landmark cache with stunning views over Houtbaai and we took the easier route back, making it just before the light faded. Jemma and Caleb were real trojans although toward the end of it we were route-marching in fading light singing "Old MacDonald" to keep Jemma from getting mizzie.
Then we headed off to Stellenbosch, picking up some Woolies meals on the way because our stunning campervan has a
microwave!!! We went to bed exhausted from the hike but with our cups overflowing from the magical beauty we had seen.
Today was a red-letter day - we had a lofty ambition: to go and find South Africa's oldest active geocache. When geocaching was still very new, a certain Prof Charles Merry planted a cache in the 
Silvermine reserve overlooking Houtbay and the Sentinel peak. This was a landmark we wanted to achieve.
But there was some housekeeping to do: Brenda wanted to get some of our laundry done and my wounds needed a bit of attention. The "Ou Skip" caravan park is a lovely spot and has a good laundry and nice jungle gyms. We took a slow morning while we did a few chores and caught up on email and logging all the caches we had found.
Then we headed for the Silvermine reserve which is at the top of Ou Kaapse weg. The travelling took us longer than expected and we got there in the mid afternoon. We decided to take the slightly longer route around, via Elephants Eye cave, as there were other treasures to be found. (You can see a profile of what we walked on the left.)
As it turned out, this was very hilly but with I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E views over the Cape Flats on one side, 
Fishhoek and Simon's town on another and then Noordhoek and Kommetjie on the other. We hiked hard, carrying Jemma (and Caleb occasionally) on our shoulders. We saw the sunset colours, the Slangkop lighthouse we'd been to the day before and even a rainbow over Fishhoek and the Cape Flats!
Eventually we got to the landmark cache with stunning views over Houtbaai and we took the easier route back, making it just before the light faded. Jemma and Caleb were real trojans although toward the end of it we were route-marching in fading light singing "Old MacDonald" to keep Jemma from getting mizzie.
Then we headed off to Stellenbosch, picking up some Woolies meals on the way because our stunning campervan has a 
microwave!!! We went to bed exhausted from the hike but with our cups overflowing from the magical beauty we had seen.
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