The dam is named after the nearby Osplaas station which you
drive past en route to GZ. The houses you see were once occupied by
the labourers as well as the station master and station foreman.
The origin of the name is unknown but one could assume that at the
time when it was named, there must have been a farm (plaas)
nearby where oxen (os) were kept – railway sidings
were often named in this fashion. The station does not look like
much today because this section of railway line was closed in 1989,
being replaced by the new line which you will pass along the
way.
The new line consists of a series of four tunnels (one of 13.3
km, the longest transport tunnel in the southern hemisphere), dug
through the mountain to get up onto the escarpment. The old line
climbed the escarp via the Hex River Pass in very tight turns and
some of the steepest inclines in South Africa (although indicated
as 1:40, some were up to 1:31). In order to haul the heavy freights
up here, the 4E electric locomotives were employed, which were
amongst the most powerful electric locomotives in the world in
their time. You can still experience the beautiful old pass first
hand by going on the historic Hexpas Express where a tractor-drawn
“train” takes you up the pass for the most
breath-taking views, sharing lots of interesting stories along the
way and walking through South Africa’s oldest railway
tunnel.
It was on such a trip that I got the idea of a cache here. I
actually wanted to put it at a little cemetery on the other side of
the railway line, but fencing put up recently, unfortunately now
makes this inaccessible. What is special about this is that it was
the Osplaas station cemetery, originally located down in the
valley. The cemetery thus had to be relocated before being flooded
by the dam. (You will find the cemetery at S33 27 08.3 E19 43 41.0
if you don’t mind jumping the fence.)
The dam has been planned by the Hexvalley Irrigation Board since
1998, construction started in 2006 and was finally completed in
June 2007. It has a capacity of 2.7 million cubic metres of water
of which 50% is allocated to irrigate 500ha land earmarked for 51
emerging farmers in four projects. Although the dam has some
catchment, water is being pumped here from four different sources
and stored for use during the dry summer months.
By the way, the dam is so new that, at the time of publishing
the cache, it did not appear on Google Earth, Google Maps or GPS
maps yet. The picture below, taken during our Hexpas Express trip
in August 2009, was when the dam was 100% full for the first time,
hence the absence of a waterline, making for some very interesting
pictures.
