Kowyn's Pass Traditional Cache
ROTSIP: As there's been no cache to find for months, I'm archiving it to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Flanking the one side of God's Window valley, the Kowyn's Pass stands tall in its history shoes.
By the 1890's, the need for a more cost effective route for necessities at Pilgrims Rest - in particular - allowed Max Carl Gustav Leibenitz to make his own fortune. Almost single-handedly this man turned the existing animal track into the first "Kowyn's Pass" - the present one is the third and was completed in 1957 at a gradient of one in fourteen.
The original pass had a gradient of - in some places one in three, and at the top of the pass Leibnitz built a toll gate and an inn. This in was the first permanent structure to be built in the GRASKOP environs. (The ruins of the inn and part of the original Kowyn's Pass are presently being looked at by GRASKOP C.T.O. as a possible future historical trail.)
Leibnitz' original pass could not - by the wildest stretch of the imagination - be termed a "road". The ascent was a 2 to 3 day grind of sweat, hard work and foul language. The heavier wagons required three spans of oxen to get up the steeper sections of the pass. Going down the pass was no game either because huge branches had to be attached to the wagon to assist with braking.
Needles to say the trade in liquor was very brisk indeed - even though Leibnitz did not have a licence. This fact, as such, wasn't a problem; but when the magistrate from Lydenburg passed through every second month on his way to the Lowveld, liquor was hastily hidden and there were many irate, thirsty men mumbling themselves to sleep.
On one auspicious occasion the magistrate - who was aware of the "illegal" trade and didn't mind the odd tipple himself - pointedly asked Liebnitz why he didn't sell liquor. "Who will look after the tollgate while I'm gone for a week fetching a piece of paper?" came the arch reply. At the truth and logic of this the magistrate relented and handed over the necessary forms, which were duly signed and witnessed. History doesn't record whether the first "Happy Hour" in GRASKOP's history happened before GRASKOP was even a town!
This cache retrieval is recommended for a clear and mist free day as you will be able to enjoy the view.
The original cache contained:
- coins
- gemstone
- car
- candle
- marbles
- pebble
- butterfly
A 4x4 can track up the road, but be very careful of the sides as it is very far down if something goes wrong!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[Under a Suikerbos/Protea bush]
Treasures
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