Roné said:
TerrorSA said:
Nice ride :thumleft:
How does one get to that bridge?
Make a date and I'll go show you - there is some Geo Caches there I need to find - apparently there were some old forts there to guard the water supply !!!
"The cache will take you to two Anglo-Boer War forts, which were only recently-discovered.
The lower fort was found only in late 2004 hidden in thick pinewoods, which were soon after destroyed in a huge forest fire. The fragmentary upper fort was identified more recently. They were constructed by the PE Town Guard in 1901 to protect the Port Elizabeth water supply.
At the Lower Fort one can see a contour trench, 7 tent platforms cut out of the steep hillside and an arrowhead trench to the north looking over the upper gorge. The walls are dry stone and about 1,5m high and some 15m length . It is believed that it was built to protect a pumping station which was on a huge concrete slab, just below the weir.(VS River Weir by amaSoekSoek)
From here there are incredible views including the highest narrow-gauge railway bridge in the world, completed in 1905.
The upper fort, believed to be a signalling post, is far more fragmented.
170 m North East of the upper fort there is a small stone&cement beacon and the remains of another dry stone structure overlooking the dam.( S 33° 53.127 E25° 13.050)
Start walking from about S33° 53.214 E25° 12.647 to the lower fort at S33° 53.215 E25° 12.744 and then proceed to the upper fort where the cache is hidden close by. This is a steep 180 m ascent in 550m with no path. Cache is in a .8L L&L."
To enhance the above interesting information given by Roné, here are some more details regarding the Van Stadens Forts: (quoted from the Military History Journal - Vol 10 No 2, as published by the South African Military History Society, December 1995. Website link:
https://samilitaryhistory.org/vol102rt.html)
Upper Van Stadens Dam Forts, Port Elizabeth area
The provision of water to Port Elizabeth from the Van Stadens River, 35 km west of the town, was first mooted in 1862. This was an ongoing process of development, the Upper Van Stadens Dam with its intake weir, filter beds and caretaker's cottage being completed in 1893. Construction continued early in 1899 on the provision of a pump-house, with engine and pumping weir, about 3 km downstream from the Upper Dam complex.(8)
Despite its enthusiastic formation in February 1900 and regular drills in the Feather Market Hall, the interest of the Port Elizabeth Town Guard flagged during the year. However, the activity of Boer commandos in the Colony soon precipitated action there, as it did in other centres. At a special parade on 14 January 1901, Lt-Col E J K Priestly, Base Commandant in Port Elizabeth, called for volunteers to form another battalion, to raise a mounted company and to guard the waterworks at Van Stadens.
The volunteers for the latter duty numbered 3 officers, 8 non-commissioned officers, 86 privates, and 2 buglers. Four days later, the wagon convoy taking ammunition and baggage left Market Square with an escort of two NCOs and ten troopers, while the main body of the Guard was transported by rail to Uitenhage and then marched 24 km to the Upper Van Stadens Dam.
The Guard was divided into two, one party to protect the pump-house and the other, the dam. The men remained at the dam for three months, building two small forts in the hills to the west and south-west. They returned to Port Elizabeth on 14 April, with the exception of two officers, a sergeant and twelve mounted men who had volunteered to stay behind. It is believed that the returnees were replaced by British troops of the 3rd Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, which had landed in South Africa on 30 March 1901 and had its headquarters in Port Elizabeth.(9) Although it is not known how long the forts and waterworks were garrisoned, the 3rd Bn Loyal North Lancashire Regiment returned to England in February 1902(10) and the Town Guard was disbanded in October of that year, five months after the end of the war.(11)
Similar in construction to the Jansenville Fort, the two Van Stadens forts have unmortared stone walls about 2 m high, although the tapered loopholes occur at only one level.
The Upper Fort is circular in plan with an external diameter of about 10 metres. In addition to an internal wall offset beneath the loopholes, it has an external batter (or slope) to the wall. The entrance on the south side is covered on the outside by a free-standing length of loop-holed screen wall. A paved walkway or firing step, 1 200 mm wide and 150 mm high, runs around the inside of the circular wall. Apart from a collapsed section of wall about 3 metres long on the west side, the fort is complete.
Van Stadens Dam Upper Fort showing the entrance with the outside screen wall to the right.
The Lower Fort is in the shape of a parallelogram with rounded ends and measures about 7,5 x 17 metres. The walls are 700 mm thick and also have an external batter, but no internal offset. The entrance, situated in the middle of the east wall, is protected by a projecting right-angled wall similar to the Jansenville Fort. An interesting feature is a 1 m wide and 1,2 m deep trench, which begins outside the entrance to the fort and extends 22 metres down the hill to the east to join another, U-shaped, trench at right angles; this was undoubtedly designed to provide hidden access to the fort, as this slope of the hill faces directly onto the Upper Dam and the caretaker's cottage. Apart from a 10-metre section of the west wall and a 3-metre length at the south-east corner, which have collapsed to below the level of the loopholes, the fort is reasonably complete.
Van Stadens Dam Lower Fort showing the interior of the rounded north end.
