KBT #5: Slangkop Lighthouse Redux
The cache, a small camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden along a sandy, rocky ‘path’ just beyond the southern end of the boardwalk near the lighthouse.
See KWT #1: Die Kom(metjie) for access waypoints.
The hide became possible with the archiving of janpe’s popular GCND2H Slangkop Lighthouse cache which was hidden on 8/4/2005 and archived on 12/1/23 after some 416 finds garnering some 5 FPs along the way.
To Find the Cache: click on the image above to access a jigsaw puzzle completion of which will reveal the cache coordinates - and a helpful hint!
Please note that although the link is from a well-known source, it has 'not been checked by Groundspeak nor by the reviewer for possible malicious content and access to the site is therefore at your own risk'.
The winding road that slithers along the Atlantic coastline leading to Kommetjie has been described as a snake-like drive. This curving coastal road leads, via Lighthouse Road, down to the Slangkop (Snake head) Lighthouse.
Construction was due to be completed in 1914 and a brass sign was commissioned accordingly, but due to WW1it was not completed and inaugurated until 4 March1919 although it was in use before then. It cost £14,358 9s (shillings) 1d (pence).
This white nautical guardian angel, a tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern, is the tallest cast iron tower in South Africa. It was fully automated in 1979 and shines 33 nautical miles out to sea from its 33m circular tower construction. It receives its electricity supply from Cape Town Municipality and has a standby diesel alternator in event of a break in the mains supply – a common occurrence in this time of daily loadshedding!
It was first commissioned by Sir Francis Hely-Hutchinson (Governor of The Cape of Good Hope) to safeguard against shipwrecks on the rocky shore – and prompted by the dramatic 1905 wrecking of the Clan Monroe nearby (as detailed in KBT #3).
One of South Africa's oldest lighthouses and one of the 4 strongest, its revolving electric light flashes 4 times every 30 seconds with a candlepower brightness of 5,000,000 C.D. on a focal plane of 41m above high tide – which means it often remains visible below thick mist.
Normally it is possible to take guided tours which ascend a steep internal spiral staircase that climbs up to wire mesh balcony but at the moment it is ‘temporarily disabled’.
Initially manned by 3 Lighthouse Keepers it is now maintained by a single Senior Lighthouse Keeper who still washes the lighthouse windows.
See here for a short video on shooting seascapes at Slangkop Lighthouse and here for a drone video of the lighthouse.
See Gallery for some more great images of the lighthouse in different light settings . . .
