Secret Pathway Redux #3: Ghost Town Approach
The cache, a black-taped screw-topped pre-form tube, is hidden alongside the upper part of the Secret Path as it approaches the Red Hill Road/Pass near Pinehaven and the access road to Kleinplaas & Lewis Gay Dams and the ghost town of Brooklands – also known as Red Hill.
It is one of a mini-series of three caches hidden in recognition of the SLAIN’s original GC64AY8 Secret pathway secret society of geocaching which was hidden 30/9/15 and archived 18/1/17 after some 30 finds.
To reach the cache location: either . . .
a) for a full work-out: start at the bottom/start of the path @ S 34 11.322 E 18 25.453 and climb up past the location of GC7GJWQ Secret Pathway Redux #1: Path or Pass? across the road past the location of GC7GKHH Secret Pathway Redux #2: Slanted Rocks Breather and on up to the cache location, or
b) for a medium work-out: park at the limited space on the hairpin bend @ S 34 12.294 E 18 24.371 and (having first properly secured your car and contents) proceed 300m up the road to the place where the path meets & crosses the road @ S 34 12.124 E 18 24.238. Then head up the path past #2 to the cache, or
c) for a quick leg stretch: park somewhere convenient near to or inside Pinehaven Village (limited space available) cross over the road to the top and of the path @ S 34 11.006 E 18 24.947 and head down the short distance to the cache location’. See this listing for these waypoints and see here for the other waypoints as may be required
Nestled in the mountains overlooking Simon’s Town are the ruins of the ghost town of Redhill (also called Brooklands). It was once home to more than 70
mostly coloured families, before Simon’s Town was declared a White Group Area on 1 September 1967. Following this, from 1968-1973 they were forcibly removed from the area, and the houses, a church and graveyard subsequently left abandoned.
They were among the approximately 5,000 coloured people forced to leave their homes in the Simon’s Town area (including those from the thriving Luyolo Village on the hillside above the town – removed in 1965 - Glencairn, Murdoch Valley, Dido Valley, Kloof, the Kraal, Seaforth, Goede Gift, Simonstown proper and Noordhoek area) under the Group Areas Act 1950 and relocated to barren land on the Cape Flats. Families were issued with a notice and given about a week to vacate their homes – with no right of appeal. The Act was eventually repealed by the Abolition of Racially-Based Land Measures Act, 1991.
At the time, Redhill residents were told they were being moved to make way for the construction of a new dam. But this never happened. The first people to leave Redhill were relocated to Heathfield and Retreat, while the rest were all moved to Ocean View, then known as Slangkop. They were joined by people who were relocated from the surrounding Noordhoek areas. Many people in Simon’s Town and Glencairn were opposed to the removals.
The close-knit community of Redhill never fell short of daily necessities. A resident recalled ‘we had livestock including cows and pigs with orchards of fruit trees and vegetables growing in our gardens. Even though we had to carry water and wood for far distances, it was never seen as a chore because you were free to play in the veld. The community was very close. Most of my aunts and uncles lived nearby’.
Most of the men either worked for the municipality or in the naval dockyard and would have used the Secret Path to go (down) to and (up) from their workplaces in the town. The women who worked, travelled to work in factories in such places as Wynberg.
The small village of Pinehaven near the junction of the Red Hill Road and the Secret Path consists of municipal cottages – which were originally occupied by municipal workers before they were also similarly forced out.
See here for a short video about the forced removals from Simon’s Town.
See here for information on Simon’s Town museum’s Project Phoenix aimed at preserving the heritage of the town. This was started in 1996 and the museum has a fascinating collection of photographs and documents showing the town, residents and effects of forced removals.
The 50th anniversary of the Simon's Town forced removals was commemorated in the town on 24 September 2017.