Railways hold a fascination. The railway line between Durban and Pietermaritzburg was first completed in 1884 by a very tortuous route to keep the gradients as flat as possible and not to have to dig tunnels. Over the ensuing years several deviations were built to improve the alignment on which some short tunnels were built, particularly the Garter Tunnel of 235m built in 1919 but which was abandoned in 1965.
The reason for this abandonment was that between 1963 and 1964 a new alignment and five new twin tunnels were built between Umlaas Road and Pietermaritzburg.
This cache is near the western portal of Tunnels No.5 which was completed in 1964. At 834m long, it is the third longest of the five.
This cache is at 689m AMSL.