Vredehoek Quarry (24 Oct)

Walking without fear 

Walk Day 24

By Janet Purcell, Blocktober walker and integral coach 

Vredehoek Quarry passed on the way to the Blockhouse

Shortly after the start of the walk to the Blockhouse taking the low gravel road from Chelmsford Road, is a tunnel going deep into Devil's Peak. It is the entrance to the "Murray and Stewart Quarry" , also known as the Vredehoek Quarry. If you were to walk through the tunnel, under its weathered supports, you would find a small dam, with a beautiful view of the city bowl. High rock faces surround the dam and in earlier years people fished and climbed and picnicked. I have never been there before. 

The quarry is one of several Table Mountain quarries that have been abandoned, and few people know their histories. 

Much of the information in this blog comes from a 2013 article in Views of the City: The earliest excavation in the Vredehoek quarry dates from as 1902 with the removal of blue stone for roads. Extraction of stone continued during the early part of the century on and off.  Unhappy complaints and petitions from various neighbours in Vredehoek over the noise of rock crushing machinery and dust from trucks, and difficulty accessing the site over private land contributed to the final closure of the quarry in 1935. The government contemplated reopening the quarry during World War 2, but the quarry was finally closed in 1942, according to reports in the Cape Times. The report further noted “all historical knowledge of Peak Quarry and its role in the provision of gravel and stone for road construction seems to have been lost from collective memory of the people of Cape Town”.

Blocktober walker Marion, raised in Cape Town and now living in Hamburg, remembers parties and sleep overs at the Quarry in the 1980s. 

For some people, in recent times, the quarry has become a place to avoid and a hotspot for muggings. But it is has also been described by members of the film industry as one of the top ten abandoned sites in Southern Africa worth visiting and as one of Table Mountain’s ‘best-kept secrets'. 

And it was fondly remembered in comments from 2014:  "we lived in Davenport road in the 1970′s and the first time we found the quarry some youngsters were catching gold fish with hooks and line" and "back in 1990 when I was a teenager, we used to sleep over at night." 

So, it was a place of beauty and mystery, not a place of fear.

Walking without fear up to the Blockhouse

These days we often walk with vigilant eyes in the backs of our heads when we walk on the mountain. We walk cautiously past the quarry. Some of us still dare to walk alone, or in small groups with dogs. Or a friendly man. One of the many gifts of joining the Blocktober walks has been of walking without fear. We've been the big group. We've been able to relax as we walk, through fresh air and gentle interest in each other. Another gift has been to meet each other in a purposeful group, able to bridge gentle new connections, that may perhaps lead us through solidarity to a different kind of world. 

A bit like the halcyon memories of water, rock faces, a dam, and a view of a city. 

Quick links

• Please donate today – to help make the target for October, Saartjie Baartman Centre's income generation programme for victims of gender-based violence needs total donations of R11000 per day! (You can set the tip at R0.)
• More about donations
• Read other Steps for Saartjie (s4s) daily BLOGS 
• Future October walks 
• Record your walk, run, cycle or swim in support of Blocktober on Strava

Next walk in Cape Town: Steps for Saartjie (s4s)

• Date: 25 October 16.30pm
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Duration: 2hrs, 7.5km
• Tafelberg Rd route: Click this PIN for starting point