The second in a series of caches (or 'treasures' as they're called by our 4 year old little boy) that were all made up by him (with a little assistance from Dad).
The Old Timber Shed, just off Hobie Beach, has led a most varied life over 200 years. It was first commissioned by the Dutch East India Company in 1778 in order to store massive logs of timber before these were floated out to sailing ships in Formosa Bay.
Over the following centuries is has slowly decayed to the derelict, yet still attractive stone structure we see today. Today the remains of the Old Timber Shed can be found in Meeding Street. The remains have been partially restored twice. It is the oldest building in Plettenberg Bay and was declared a National Monument in 1936.
Johann Jacob Jerling obtained a contract to build the timber shed where the huge boles could be stored until it was possible to ship them out. This “Houtschuur” had to be 200 feet long, 22 feet wide and 13 feet high and all the woodwork had to be of yellowwood.
The walls were made of huge blocks of stone, fitted together without any cement.The strong but untrained workers used only a simple block-and-tackle to fit the stones into place. The sturdy walls were then covered with a slightly sloping reed roof to keep the timber dry. Unfortunately one clause in Jerling’s contract specified that the timber work must be of yellowwood, timber that is not durable for any length of time, when exposed to the elements. Within only 16 years it was reported by the next official to come this way that the reed roof had fallen in, and that the yellowwood lintels were collapsing, especially on the south side under the koppie. This meant that the structure had soon become a useless building.
Our little boy started geocaching with us at the age of 3 in Dec 2014 and absolutely loves it, especially the GC's large enough to have lots of goodies to look through. He's now almost as good as us at finding GC's that are within his reach/height.! Accordingly, he was very excited to hit the shops to buy goodies, bottles, notepads, pencils, etc and to pack his 'treasures' ready for deployment.
We discussed this hiding place with him and agreed where the GC should go. He hid it for other kids (& adults) to enjoy finding, opening, looking through, trading and enjoying.
This is a small / medium GC, well disguised and hidden in the building structure. Might be quite a difficult find but the building remains definitely warrant a visit and with the hint you should find it in no time at all. Note that my GPS had 3m accuracy at all reading times. You can park right next to the entrance to this area but please beware of any muggles that might be inside (not from a security concern but rather their interest in the GC). Not more than 50mwalk from parking area on easy terrain.
Please be sure to take note of the arrangement of the GC hiding place in order to replace exactly as you found it.
There is a pencil and sharpener to sign the log book and keep the pencil sharp. You can trade small items and please do.