7 GATEWAY TO THE MOUNTAIN
Opportunities for catchment; detention; filtration & display within the dual water system. Re-instate mountain water infrastructure: weirS, natural filtration via the old slow sand filter. Van Riebeeck's Park; Hoerikwaga trail; wasplaas archaeological site; lower wash house; Platteklip stream; possibilities to produce power by re-instating the old Platteklip mill and the broader Raaswater precinct.
There are opportunities for a cultural water museum, incorporating the artifacts of the washerwomen and others. Kramats and the spiritual links between communities and water are undeniable in this precinct. Capelsluit, the subterranean gracht to castle, as an adventure trail. Other springs; storm water and possibilities for rainwater harvest. Retention & detention ponds and areas earmarked for 'guerilla food gardens' are all abundant in this precinct.
There are opportunities for a cultural water museum, incorporating the artifacts of the washerwomen and others. Kramats and the spiritual links between communities and water are undeniable in this precinct. Capelsluit, the subterranean gracht to castle, as an adventure trail. Other springs; storm water and possibilities for rainwater harvest. Retention & detention ponds and areas earmarked for 'guerilla food gardens' are all abundant in this precinct.
PRECINCT 7 - GATEWAY TO TABLE MOUNTAIN
CAMISSA is a development framework which, through the use of water, focuses on the reinstatement of the ecological link that reunites the mountain and the ocean into a public landscape, as a sustainable solution for Cape Town's Central Business District.
 AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF PRECINCT 7 |
|
SPECIAL PLACES WITHIN PRECINCT 7
TABLE MOUNTAIN'S WATER INFRASTRUCTURE |
LOWER PLATTEKLIP WATERFALLThe water from Platteklip Gorge tumbles down a big rock into a pool on Tafelberg Road. It is said that this is the original ‘Lady Anne Barnard’s Bath’. The pool near the confluence of the Platteklip and Saddle Streams, was the pool which has been immortalised by a painting with two handwritings, which read “My own bathing place”. It depicts a nude figure bathing in the pool which is fed by a mountain stream. The other handwriting has added the words “Cape Sluit, Platteklip Gorge, Table Mountain”. (In Joe Lison 1970:26)
British occupation and Cape Town’s social history is personified by Lady Anne Barnard (1750 – 1825), who came with her husband, the colonial secretary in 1797. Dressed in full regalia, she joined a party that set out to climb Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge and achieved it in 3 hours. She relates in her diary that “about halfway, we had come to a fine spring of water, which fell from the top of a rock, over our heads; we drank some of it with port wine…” (In Joe Lison 1970:25) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Anne_Barnard http://www.randomstruik.co.za/title-page.php?titleID=3940&imprintID=8 http://www.clanlindsay.com/lady_anne_lindsay.htm Today, this area remains sacred to many spiritual dominions, some whom travel vast distances to collect the sacred water from the Platteklip Waterfalls. |
DE GRENDEL |
PLATTEKLIP STREAM |
PLATTEKLIP DAM |
KRAMAT |
SLOW SAND FILTER |
PLATTEKLIP MILL |
PLATTEKLIP WASH HOUSES |
RAASWATER |
