GPS - 105_E_Gerrit Maritz Traditional Cache

This is a cache that was created to be part of the Gauteng Power Series (GPS). The Gauteng Power Series (GPS) was created to offer Cachers the opportunity to achieve personal caching goals by using Grand Personal Selection (GPS) to decide how to hunt and find these caches, all in one day, or one by one over a period of time. Remember to Go Physically Safely (GPS) when you Grope, Peek and Search (GPS)

The caches hidden on this stretch of the GPS series are all close to busy roads, not recommended for small children. We tried to hide the caches keeping parking in mind as close to GZ as possible, but as always please rather be safe than sorry!

Voortrekker monument View

Parking is close to GZ
Gert (Gerrit) Maritz (1798 – 23 September 1838) was a Voortrekker pioneer and leader.  He also joining the Great Trek in South Africa, left for Thaba Nchu with 700 people. When they arrived in November 1836, they held a mass meeting with the Voortrekkers who had already arrived. Maritz was elected as the president of a council of 7 members who were to look after the interests of the Voortrekkers. Potgieter was elected the military leader. One of the first decisions of the council was to send an expedition out to recapture their cattle from Mzilikazi. The trekkers saw Thaba Nchu as the strategic centre of the Transgariep area. It was within relatively easy reach of Natal, the Vaal River area and the Colony. There was good pasture, permanent water and the local Barolong chief, Moroka, was initially friendly towards them. Maritz's party remained in the area for a few months and was later joined from the north by Hendrik Potgieter (after the battle of Vegkop - where, under Potgieter's leadership, 40 trekkers defeated 6 000 Matabele) and Piet Retief. It was here that he first showed signs of an illness that would cause his death less than two years later. Over the Berg and into the promised land.
Natal had always been Gerrit's aim. So at Suikerbosrand, just north of the Vaal River, he turned east and south towards the mighty Drakensberg. The Berg was a formidable barrier, but 'n boer maak 'n plan, so they removed the wagons' back wheels, attached large logs to the undercarriage and eased down the slope. They 'eased' down what is now De Beer's Pass. It's about 30 dirt-road kilometres east of where today's travellers traverse Van Reenen's Pass. After crossing the Drakensberg, Gerrit's party travelled another 130 kilometres to the Bushmans River, he called the Bushmans River camp Saailaer ('sowing laager') because it was there he started to farm and where he planned to settle. It was also there that Gerrit and his family were during the Bloukrans Massacre. "The Maritzs were saved because Saailaer wasn't in the direct warpath of the impis,","The Zulus weren't aware there were so many trekkers and initially didn't know Gerrit was camped there." When his laager was eventually discovered, Gerrit and his men had prepared their defences and, aided by a flooding Bushmans River, managed to drive the battle-weary impis into retreat. It was after Bloukrans that Gerrit set about planning the retaliation attack (the battle of Blood River) against Dingaan.