Silvermist
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 & their 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).
The
Cache
This cache is located about 30 minutes walk from Constantia Nek up
the steep partly stepped path passing through/alongside part of the
private Silvermine Estate for which TMNP has negotaiated access to
Vlakkenberg. It is a small-sized cylindrical camo-container hidden
about 10m off the mountainside of the path opposite the TMNP
information board. The cache area can be reached easily without
damaging any vegetation. There are some fine views from here
particularly north across to Eagle's Nest & Bel Ombre.