Mea culpa! I asked members to report at the ‘upper end of Chelmsford Road, Vredehoek’, not knowing that Chelmsford Road has two upper ends. Therefore the meet on 8 November commenced somewhat later than expected, at 09h45. We walked immediately above suburbia to Deer Park, being greeted by innumerable incarcerated dogs who clearly wished to escape and join us. From the Deer Park car park we walked along several indirect paths to Tafelberg Road near the public toilets. We walked a few metres along the Road, up the Platteklip Gorge path, along the Lower Contour Path almost to the far end of Tafelberg Road below Devil’s Peak. From thence we descended through burned bush and the NE side of the Tin Mine Stream to the Mine artefacts.
Having inspected the overgrown launders and crushing mill remains we walked up the Stream to the Mine shaft, then down to the Mine level. Disaster! Since the reconnoitre SANParks has blocked the level entrance with barbed wire and erected a “Danger No Entry” sign. Although it is possible to pass the barbed wire we decided not to attempt to enter the level. Being an official Club meet it would have been very embarrassing if a TMNP ranger had spotted us. We returned to the correct upper end of Chelmsford road at about 16h00.
You can download the story of the Tin Mine written by Prof. Peter Spargo, which appeared in the Quarterly bulletin of the National Library of South Africa (Quart Bull NLS Afr 54 (1) 1999 p19).
COMMENT: There are innumerable other artefacts below the Front Table and Devil’s Peak, including blockhouses, reservoirs, quarries, graves and old walls dating from the VOC period, providing plenty of scope for an appropriately knowledgeable member to lead a meet to them.
