Stream of Reeds Mystery Cache

Cape Geckos has a Geocache listing called S34 (GC1QMGR). In his opinion the line of Latitude 34 deg is a defining feature of the southern Suburbs as it's the line of latitude that runs in an east-west direction and cuts the Southern Suburbs into roughly equal north and south parts.

Another feature, this time a topographical feature that (in my opinion) defines the Southern Suburbs is the Liesbeeck River. The Liesbeeck River is actually the confluence of the Vaalkat, Nursery and Skeleton streams which arise on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. The first three join to form Protea stream in Kirstenbosch Gardens. Below Winchester Avenue (in the Boschenheuvel Arboretum) Protea joins Window stream to form the Liesbeeck River. The river flows through the Southern Suburbs in a northerly direction until it joins up with the Black River in the Observatory area to run through Paarden Eiland and into the sea. The Dutch name Liesbeeck roughly translates to Stream of Reeds.

Having the distinction of being South Africa's oldest urban river, much of the Liesbeeck River is unfortunately canalised and the majority of the river was allowed to degrade to a very polluted and unkempt water way. It has disappeared out of peoples view and thus out of mind.

Fortunately an organisation called Friends of the Liesbeeck has been formed and they are doing great work in restoring and cleaning up the Liesbeeck.

There are several links below to websites that I sourced for my information. Please visit them to read more about the interesting history of this river.

1) http://www.fol.org.za

1) http://www.bvra.org.za/index.php/site/.../bishopscourt-village-river-project/

In my meanderings of the Geocaching website I noticed that there are ten Geocaches listed within 150 metres of the river as it winds its way down from the mountain and north to join the sea in Table Bay. I've traced a virtual course of the Liesbeeck using Geocache listings (see picture in gallery). I then added my own cache to the list.

To find my Geocache you need to source these other Geocaches on the website and figure out the clues hidden within them in order to calculate the co-ordinates of my Geocache. NOTE: The clues are all contained within the website so there is no need to visit the physical locations.

Acknowledgements to Discombob. I used the same concept which he used in his geocache "I love geocaching" (GC12N11).

1) The source of the one of the feeder rivers (probably Skeleton) is the Hely-Hutchinson reservoir. Discombob has a cache right at the source. However he's a bit confused. The Hely-Hutchinson Reservoir is halfway up the mountain but Discombob thinks he's next to the sea, hence the name of his cache.
SawaSawa walked right past this cache because he was trying to get to the the Waterworks Museum that closed at a certain time of day. As it happened his efforts were in vain as it had already closed by the time he got there.

Question: What time was the museum supposed to close? 1(A)h00

2) From Discombob's cache the feeder river winds its way down the mountain in a westerly direction towards Kirstenbosch Gardens. CapeDoc has a cache along the this part of the river.

Question: How many falling skeletons can you see? (B)

3) The feeder river enters Kirstenbosch gardens to combine with the other two feeder rivers. CapeDoc has a very verbal cache at this location which extols the virtues of the 5 most important or significant plants in Kirstenbosch Gardens. The "Big 5" as it were.

Question: How many of these plants are extinct in the wild? (C)

4) The river exits Kirstenbosch Gardens and makes it way through Bishops Court where it officially adopts the name "Liesbeeck" and winds toward towards Newlands. A cache hidden by team Fido and adopted by Trevorh7000 is situated right on its banks. Brad790 must have done this one at night because he gives some strange advice about rivers and slippers.

Question: How many caches had he found that day? (D)

5) As the river starts turning northwards to wind its way through Newlands towards Rondebosch, Pixel and Possum own a cache along the river. A most ingenious hide that one needs a "key" to access.

Question: How many dogs did Hectic need to help him find the cache? (E)

6) In the proximity of Paradise Motors the river ducks underneath the M3 and does a little easterly dog leg turn before carrying on in its general northerly direction towards Rondebosch. PAR-3 owns a cache about 140 metres from the river as it winds its way through Newlands. It's a tribute to a Coonhound that had the eyes and voice of a bloodhound.

Question: What time did PepperTheHunter eventually abandon the hunt? 1(F)h00

7) In its general north west meandering the river crosses underneath Main Road and pops up near Josephines Mill and the Western Province rugby stadium. The cache closest to it is Stormers cache (GC12N11) owned by Lordmacrae.

Question: None

8) Flowing through Newlands in a Northerly direction toward Rondebosch, a cache owned by jayguy2 is close by dedicated to a provincial rugby team. This cache is quite tricky to find because the co-ordinates take you to the middle of the road and there are dozens of little hidey holes along both sides of the road to choose from. The fact that the area is a high muggle area, makes it a difficult find. Team Zenboom used Google to try and shortcut the search but came unstuck.

Question: Google misled the team by how many metres? (G)0

9) The rivers enters the Rondebosch area and Trevorh7000 has a second cache in very close proximity. It used to be a water haven for horses in the good old days.

Question: What year was this feature declared a National Monument? 19(H)4

10) After Rondebosch the river goes under the Liesbeeck Parkway in the vicinity of the Rygersdal sports club. It runs parallel to the Liesbeeck Parkway until it disappears under the N2 and resurfaces in the Observatory area in the vicinity of the Hartleyvale sports stadium.

Very close to the River Club the Liesbeeck joins the Black River in preparation for its journey through Paarden Eiland and into Table Bay. Trevorh7000 owns the last cache in Hartleyvale, the area very close to where the two rivers (Liesbeeck and Black) meet. The restaurant down the road offered a prize of beer to the FTF.

Question: How many beers did it offer? (I)

I have placed the cache in Mowbray to complete the course of the river. Its very close to a play park so lots of muggles and their children will be around to watch your bizarre activities.

The published co-ordinates mark a random place in the river and shouldn't be used as a starting point. Please DON'T park on Liesbeeck Parkway while searching, there is adequate parking in a Cul de Sac nearby the cache.

The cache is located at S 33 5E.(A-B)D(E-A)  E 018 2(H+I).(F-G)E(C+E).

Please take a picture of the Liesbeeck river as it's flowing at the time of your visit (include yourself if possible) and upload it to the picture gallery with your log.