2010 New Years Bash Cache #3 The Wall Traditional Cache
Happy Hunters SA: This cache has been archived by the owner as this area has become too dangerous.
2010 New Years Bash Cache #3 The Wall
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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This is one in a series of caches placed for the 2010 New Years
Bash. This is one of the last bits of open space in this area. With
all the development, who knows how long this little hill will be
vacant!
This cache is located in Strubens Valley and along the
Wilgespruit.
The adjoining farms Sterkfontein and Wilgespruit in what is now
Roodepoort where Roodepoort got its name.
And here is some History about the area.
Many of the pioneers of the South African interior suspected that
there was gold here somewhere - it had, after all, been found a few
hundred kilometres to the east, in Barberton. Some prospectors
spent years buying up land, digging and panning, finding tell-tale
yellow traces, but nothing substantial. In 1882, Siegmund
Hammerschlag, whose farm Tweefontein lay where Krugersdorp is
today, erected the first ore-crushing machinery, a two-stamp
battery.
The first to strike gold were the Struben brothers, Fred and Harry,
who owned parts of the adjoining farms Sterkfontein and Wilgespruit
in what is now Roodepoort. They found what looked at first to be
the first "payable" seam in 1884, and called their mine Confidence
Reef, a name that proclaimed that the long search was over. Alas,
even Confidence Reef lasted no more than a year.
The Struben family had immigrated to South Africa from Germany
around 1840. In 1856, Harry bought his first span of oxen and
became a transport rider between Durban and Pretoria. In 1862 he
bought a farm in Pretoria, where he settled, with his wife and
seven children. Fred also moved to Pretoria, where he worked as an
assistant to Harry.
The two brothers joined the rush to Kimberley, when diamonds were
discovered there in 1871, but returned shortly afterwards when
Fred's health suffered. In 1882 Fred tried his luck again at
Barberton in what is today Mpumalanga, where a rich but short-lived
gold reef had been discovered. He returned to his brother's farm,
which was close to ruin after a hailstorm destroyed his
crops.
Almost broke, the brothers considered emigrating to New Zealand,
but a chance visit changed their minds. Knowing that Fred had a
reputation for expertise in geology, neighbouring farmer Louw
Geldenhuys arrived to ask for an opinion of the rocks on his farm
Wilgespruit, which covered part of what is today the western flank
of Johannesburg.
Geldenhuys had also been in Barberton, and he believed the rocks on
his farm were similar to the gold-bearing rocks he had seen in
Barberton. The two men rode over to Wilgespruit and looked at the
rocks, and Fred became convinced that the area was indeed
gold-bearing.
Fred made the astute observation that many of the pebbles appeared
water-worn, which indicated that at some point in the distant past,
"the whole area must have been submerged", resulting in the
accumulation of layers of sediment and "conglomerate beds …
which might possibly carry gold as in other parts of the
world"
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Abg va gur ehvaf, ohg pybfr va n yvggyr pnir
Treasures
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