A Bridge Too Far Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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The cache site is in the Little Karro between Touws River and Anysberg Nature Reserve.
Because of lack of transport Ladismith's growth was severely restricted, and the demand for a railway into the Little Karoo was constantly voiced. The outcome was a visit to Ladismith in 1893 by Cecil John Rhodes and Sir James Sivewright (Minister of Public Works). The inhabitants of Ladismith were cock-a-hoop about the impending establishment of the railway, but nothing came of it for many years.
Work began on 1st September 1923 on a line between Touws River and Ladismith and thereafter progressed rapidly. The entire line was ready at the end of October 1925. This was the time of depression and some of the erstwhile ostrich barons worked on this line at 3c per day The Hon. C.W. Malan, the first Minister of railways opened the line on 3rd November 1925. As the decade passed, so the depression lifted and life became better in the Ladismith district.
Then followed the fatal Sunday, 25th January 1981, when the rains came. The Touws River flooded, burst its banks and wiped out the railway line and many farms along its course. The line was never rebuilt and without this line there was little chance of rehabilitation: if you battled through and managed to restore your crops, what hope was there if you could not send them out on the railway? Without the railway the farmers were back in the bad old days of the ostrich depression - in fact they were worse off, as many no longer had farms in anything but name. Eventually many of the farms in the area were bought by Cape Nature.
Anysberg Nature Reserve was established in 1988 in order to conserve the local veldtype and to eventually re-introduce game species that historically occurred in this region. In 1995 an adjacent 10 000 ha was purchased, and the reserve now comprises an area of 44 515 ha. The landscape alternates from gently undulating terrain and Karoo plains to rugged mountains with steep gorges. The Anys, Touws and Prins Rivers, tributaries of the Gouritz river system, flow through the reserve.
The cache is situated at the remains of railway bridge No. 111 near the Anysberg Nature Reserve. Camping and cottages are available if you wish to stay over in the reserve.
The cache is a tupper ware container and contains the usual assortment of goodies as well as a logbook,pen, a soldier to guard the cache and a Geocaching Read It note.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va gur juvgr.