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OVS History Series # 8 - Groot Trek Memorial Traditional Cache

Hidden : 2/7/2012
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

The cache is situated above the Ox-Wagon which was laid against Hospital Hill with painted white rocks during these festivities. The cache is hidden between some rocks on the outside of the fence.
You will have to climb a small hill to reach this cache, we recommend parking in front of the Church at S28º14.119 E028º19.455 and walking to the cache.

During 1938 the “Afrikaanse Taal- en Kultuurvereniging (ATKV)” organized a symbolic Ox-wagon trek to accompany the laying of the cornerstone for the “Voortrekkermonument” in Pretoria and to commemorate the “Groot Trek” which occurred 100 years earlier. The region of Bethlehem was deeply intertwined with the occurrences of the “Trek”. Piet Retief’s “trek” moved past the still to be town and the first residents were “Voortrekkers” who moved out of Natal when the British invaded this, the first Voortrekker-republic.

On 5 November 1938 between thirteen- and fithteen-thousand people welcomed the “Piet Retief-“ and “Vrou-en-Moeder” wagons outside Bethlehem. A line of more than six kilometers, consisting of amongst others, four thousand children and a cavalry commando of one thousand riders, lead the wagons into the town. With their arrival at the festival grounds, the last Free State flag which used to fly above Fouriesburg during the Anglo-Boer war, was raised. Rev. Ackerman, the chairman of the organization committee declared that Fonteinstraat would be renamed Eeufeesstraat (translates to Century Festival street). The Bethlehem High School was also renamed Voortrekker High School, and the sportsgrounds next to the school the “Dirkie Uys- sportsgrounds. The grade 11 class of 1938 left the inscription “Mag die erwe van ons vaders vir ons kinders erwe bly” (May the land of our fathers remain the land of our children”).

The cache is situated above the Ox-Wagon which was laid against Hospital Hill with painted white rocks during these festivities. The cache is hidden between some rocks on the outside of the fence.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

+- n zrgre sebz gur srapr nobir gur qeviref frng.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)