Lewis Gay Dam
The cache, a small green-taped tablet pot, is hidden near the summit of a small hill overlooking the dam. It is reached by an easy walk up from the parking site by the dam wall followed by a short stretch on sand and rock through the recovering fynbos.
Lewis Gay Dam (capacity 86 ML) is one of several dams in the Red Hill and Klawer Valley area supplying water to Simon’s Town.
It was opened in 1952 and has a reinforced concrete wall. Together with the nearby Kleinplass Dam the water supply was enough to meet Simon’s Town needs until 1982. Since the mid-90s the supply has been supplemented from the City of Cape Town supply and the navy dams in Klaver Valley.
Several options are under current consideration to further enhance supply to meet greatly increased future demand, amongst which are the construction of a further dam in Brooklands valley. But this is controversial not least because of sensitive environmental concerns in this protected area.
Directions to the Cache:
From the M4 just north of Simon’s Town, take the M66 Red Hill Road heading inland west and steeply up from the coast. Take a moment or three to admire the spectacular view over Simon’s Town and False Bay from the view point car park at the top of the hill (a great spot for Southern Right Whale spotting in September-October! and also the location of GC1R7VF Red Hill Viewpoint).
After a further 0.5km turn right onto a tar road by the sign Brookland Water Scheme. Follow this road (with speed bumps!) for approximately 2.8km passing the numerous ruins of
Brooklands Ghost Town (a result of forced removals of non-white Simon’s Town workers during the apartheid era) and the car park for the start of the trail to Kleinplaas dam on the way.
At the end of the tar road just before the gates of the Brooklands water filtration plant, turn left on the dirt track and park at the gate by the side of the dam wall at S 34 10.015 E 18 23.786.
The objective is the white black summit marker post of the small hill to the right (north) overlooking the dam.
For the easiest approach, take the track proceeding through (around) the gate straight ahead and continue up the gentle slope for about 600m. Bear right at the T-junction as you reach the top of the track. Continue for approximately 200m to a left hand bend in the track at S 34 9.862 E 18 23.603.
From here take any convenient route through the bush and then rocks to the summit post at S 34 9.860 E 18 23.746 (elev. 267m) which is marked 125-OA-DS (significance/meaning unknown).
After admiring the fine view in all directions (assuming you are not in the clouds!) search for the cache in the area roughly south-east of and not far away from the summit post - hidden under one of the larger rocks behind some smaller ones.
Note: the fynbos between the track and the summit is currently recovering from a fairly recent fire and is thus fairly clear, however with time it will no doubt become thicker and a little less easy to pass through. If wearing shorts, take care not to scratch your legs on the numerous burnt stalks.