Pavement Rocks Traditional Cache

Pavement Rocks

The Trail
    
This is one of a series of caches along this great route between East Fort and Constantia Nek which were placed to encourage more geocachers & muggle friends to visit this part of the Cape Peninsula . . . and to make the worthwhile detour to explore the spectacular ledges of Skoorsteenberg.

There are several point of access to the trail but the three main starting points are:
    
1. East Fort parking area @ S 34° 03.297 E 018° 21.889
2. Constantia Nek parking area @ S 34° 00.680 E 018° 24.320 (head for the start of the Vlakkenberg trail about 400m down the Hout Bay road from the restaurant car-park)
3. Silvermine parking area @ S 34° 04.516 E 018° 24.055

(The trail can also be accessed near its middle section from Bokkemanskloof (parking at the top end of Blue Valley Avenue near S 34° 01.432 E 018° 22.996) or from Tokai Plantation. Another route accessing towards the Constantia end runs up Vlakkenberg Ridge (parking at the end of Price Drive @ S 34° 01.464 E 018° 24.812)
    
The main trail is part of the 4-day Hoerikwaggo Hiking Trail which runs from Table Mountain to Cape Point – see http://www.hoerikwaggotrail.org/map/hoerikwaggo-trail.html for more information.
    
The side trail to Skoorsteenberg is a well established track marked in less distinct areas by regular cairns. All trails are well-visible on Google Earth and marked on the relevant Slingsby map – Hout Bay & The Constantia Winelands.
    
The easiest way to do the route (and detour) is to leave a car at each end and then walk from one to the other. It is something like 12km and will take around 6 hours to complete (+ cache time!) Water may be available en route where the trail crosses Baviaanskloof near this cache location (runs dry in summer) and in the marshy area under the boardwalk section above Bokkemanskloof @ S 34° 01.812 E 018° 23.429 (still running when the cache was placed).
    
To reach the cache:
    
Follow the main trail from either end to the junction with the Constantiaberg jeep track @ S 34° 02.218 E 018° 23.282. Then take the trail heading south towards East Fort - for about 10-15m only - before turning west (right) on a narrow track heading through the fynbos towards Skoorsteenberg. Follow this past the rocky outcrop on your left after 400m and continue down and across a shallow valley and up the other side into a more sandy and then rocky area. At around S 34° 02.029 E 018° 22.540 the trail moves up a small gully through a rock band. As you exit from the top of this head right towards the cache across the flat (pavement) rocks.
    
The Cache
    
This is a small-sized screw-capped camo-container and is hidden behind lichen-covered rocks in a small hollow at waist/chest height above a ledge some 4m above the ground and about 1.5m below the pavement level. The required ledge may be accessed from either of two narrow rock gullies - the larger one starting @ S 34° 02.027 E 018° 22.522.