The small town of Garies (pronounced Gharies)popultion;1000 lies 60km North of Bitterfontein on the N7 in the Northern Cape. A decent gravel road following on from the end of the main road past the Garies Hotel takes you SW out onto flat plains along the Groen rivier. Many Karee trees line the banks of this river as it lazily meanders towards the sea always on your left. 70 km later the Groen r. spills out into the cold Atlantic Ocean along an otherwise featureless coastline running from SSW to NNW. (Mobile phone reception is lost about 20kms out of Garies).
Follow the road down the coast for another 3 kilometres from the river mouth to the lighthouse, a 30m high yellow monolith with black waistbands and a glass lantern on the top.
You will pass the shacks abandoned by the poor white squatter families who in a court case in Kimberley, Aug 2007 were given eviction notices. Some 3 shacks are still inhabited by the bittereindes.
The lighthouse is now an unmanned, automatic electric one flashing white every 5 seconds(Fl.W.5S), night-time/poor vis only.
The purpose is to warn vessels of two rocky shoals just proud of the surface ½kilometre and 1 kilometre from the shore respectively.
The squatters eak out an existence by sheer subsistence fishing and some home gardens. Potable water is pumped from boreholes or from the Groen river.
The Groen r. forms a small lagoon which is open at high tide. Further upstream, the plentiful green trees and shrubs on the river hide the presence of large antelope like Kudu and Eland and other smaller buck.
A sand track follows on some 70km from the L.house down the coast & you can camp in safety along this deserted bit of pristine beach, with exception of the clearly marked Namaqua Sands mining concession some 30 km down.
The cache is hidden from casual observers. It is wrapped in a black plastic bag, a 2litre icecream tub.
Contents: - a Geocache letter, a logbook and pen in a zip-lock bag. Cache in includes, some small SA flags, yellow sun bloc for the face, a hand made bead ghecko keyring, new insulating tape.
Small note on cache maintenance: Our motorcycle club will tour here three times a year, ensuring that the cache will be maintained.
Cache still ok but box needs maintenance, please can you take a 2 litre icecream tub to replace the cache box.