Ye Olde Toll Bridge Traditional Cache
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(regular)
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A quick pitstop at a forgotten piece of history alongside the N3
The cache is situated at an old toll bridge which was built in 1884 over the Wilge River. Around the bridge a small settlement developed, the Riverview Lodge being one of the first buildings in this fledgling hamlet.
The village later became known as Swinburne, the railway station was named after Sir John Swinburne who died in 1917. He owned properties in the area, but apparently never lived here.
Park at the parking coordinates to admire the bridge and take a short stroll to recover the cache. There can be a fair bit of pedestrian traffic in the area, so make sure you are not being observed. Take care with small children on the bridge, the edges are low and there are some loose stones. Make sure the cache and the covering are properly replaced so that it is not visible from the side or above.
The source of the Wilge is only 45km (as the crow flies) from here. The Wilge river is interesting for a number of reasons. The Wilge (Willow) was originally named after the numerous willows that grow on its banks. Originally this was only the Cape Willow. Now its banks are also lined with the weeping willow which is native to china and was imported in the early nineteenth century. It is estimated that the Wilge has more willow trees than any other river in South Africa along its 400km course before flowing into the Vaal.
When the weeping willow was imported from China, only female trees were imported. The South African Weeping Willow can therefore not propagate via seed as it would normally do. It propagates by branches falling off and imbedding themselves in the muddy banks to form new trees. The Wilge is probably South Africa’s slowest large river. It has an extremely shallow gradient (6m per km) and this makes it easy for the weeping willow to propagate the way it does which would account for the high proportion of trees along its course.
The Wilge also has steep banks which made it extremely difficult to cross in the days of horseback and ox wagons. It therefore made a natural boundary, and a strategic barrier in times of war.
Water from the Sterkfontein dam is released into the Wilge River to feed the Vaal Dam which is strategic to the economic powerhouse in Gauteng.
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