DSS#11: Pie Rock Reef
The cache, a black 35mm film canister, is hidden a little way up a wide drainage channel at an easily accessible location above the road, a short distance from the parking area overlooking the dive site.
To access the cache: park at S 34 14.522 E 18 28.444, cross the road and locate the end of a concrete drainage way some 25m south. Follow this up and along to the cache location.
It was placed in recognition of AndyT1's cache GC2T9QQ Pie Rock Reef which was archived on 6/12/16 after 61 finds. It was one of a memorable and notably well-prepared 14-cache series published simultaneously on 24/12/2011 - to the great excitement of local cachers who in response feverishly assembled a pre-dawn FTF mission! The mission was only partially successful with 3 FTFs - a certain early bird CapeCCR having nabbed the other 11 some few minutes before!
The original series was not numbered and the current numbering is based on the sequence of caches running north to south. As at January 2017, 7 of the original 14 caches have been archived and are targeted for replacement at nearby new locations. Thanks are due to AndyT1 for kindly agreeing to the use of his excellent original cache descriptions, which described the dive sites and featured local 'critters', as reference material in preparing the new cache descriptions.
The key resource material for divers wishing to dive these sites is the excellent Diving the Cape Peninsula and False_Bay which gives thorough and comprehensive general information and links to specific information for most of the numerous individual dive sites covered. The web-site is a mine of information on the various underwater aspects of the peninsula and bay and is well worth a read even by non-divers (such as myself).
Pie Rock Reef is a rocky reef about 750m offshore, almost straight out from Castle Rocks. Its name comes from one of the reef rocks which resembles a wedge of pie. The reef consists of numerous granite outcrops with large sand patches in between and is up to 22m deep and covers a large area.
Shallower areas of 15m or less are mainly covered with kelp, while deeper parts have huge fields of orange sea fans. There are also numerous soft corals, sea cucumbers, feather and brittle stars, nudibranchs, anemones and fish. It is a dive site which can be visited many times without covering the same area.
This site is only really accessible by boat - usually launched from Miller's Point slipway - and is a popular venue with the charter operators.
See here for more detailed information and a dive site map and here for a short video of diving at the site showing the beautiful things to be seen there.
Featured Critter – Spider Crabs
Two species live here . . .
The Hotlips Spider Crab (Archaeopsis spinulosus) grows up to 7cm across, is found from False Bay to Durban and is endemic to the area. It can be found down to 100m but also 
frequents the intertidal zone living between striped anemones or on sea fans. It has long sturdy legs and a small and compact body which it decorates with small sponges - it is rarely seen without body camouflage. Distinguishing features are its red striped pincers and red mouth parts.
The Cape Long-Legged Spider Crab (Macropodia falcifera) has a body of some 2cm and legs extending to 6cm. It has a similar occurrence to the above crab and lives at a depth of 15m to over 35m - being normally found on sea fans. It has a small, arrowhead-shaped pinkish or reddish body. Its pincers are considerably sturdier than its long thin legs and are tipped with white claws and short spiny hairs. Both its legs and pincers are usually a darker red. It is distinguished by a long rostrum and a carapace longer than broad with two pairs of long erect spines. It may also decorate itself - with hydroids or algae - to avoid detection.