This is a beautiful, large church in the heart of Machadodorp. As with the Methodist Church, we really wanted to place a larger cache, but with the fact that the previous attempt at hiding a cache at the church did not survive before being published, we opted for a micro/nano with a difference.
PLEASE exercise extreme stealth with this cache, as you could be watched by many prying eyes. Your camera will come in handy so take lots of pictures - even if they are pretend!
The cache is inside the church grounds, as we found all gates to be open on a Saturday morning. It seemed like the gates are always open in daylight hours. Please do not attempt this cache if the gates are closed or locked.
Machadodorp grew around the railway station called "Geluk", the same name as the sheep farm that surrounded the station. In 1894, the name was changed to honour the Portuguese Joachim Machado, an engineer who had surveyed the area for the proposed Pretoria to Delagoa Bay railway line.
During the Second Anglo Boer War in 1900, Paul Kruger and the Transvaal Volksraad made this settlement their "temporary seat" when they had to evacuate their current capital of Pretoria and evade being captured by the British. Apparently, they made use of railway carriages as their offices. Despite this fame, the town was only declared a municipality in 1904.
The Station has since closed but thanks to the cold waters in the region, a thriving tourist industry abounds with the trout in these waters. Machadodorp forms part of the "Highlands" tourism area.
Thanks to Trinamat, the following information about the church has been provided:
The congregation celebrated their centenary of the congregation last Sat 10th November 2012. Though the congregation started in 1912, the church was only designed and built in 1926/7. The architect was Gerard Moerdyk, best known for designing the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. His parents were Dutch immigrants to South Africa. His father came as a school teacher to help teach Afrikaans children. Not long after they arrived the 2nd South African war broke out, and Gerard's Dad went to fight with the Afrikaners. Gerard, his Mum and siblings were interned by the British in the Standerton Concentration Camp. After the war Gerard completed his schooling at the forerunner school to Pretoria Boys High and travelled to Britain where he graduated as an archtect. He travelled extensively in Europe before returning to South Africa. His novel octagonal church buildings repaced the traditional crucifix shaped church designs. The inspiration for the octagonal churches is believed to have come from Spain. A collection of his work is stored in the Pretoria University Architecture Archives, where he was also one of the longest serving Chairmen of the Council of the University of Pretoria.
Please Note: No harm was done to this tree when placing/hiding this cache. Any cutting or changes to the tree have been done by the church personnel. This cache is NOT inside the tree!