M2KB #1: Bailey’s Cottage Short Multi
Note: as usual with multi-caches, the given coordinates are not for the cache.
They are for the nearest parking spot to access Step 1 - the start location.
This is the 1st of a series of 10 caches on a wonderful coastal walk along the False Bay coast from Muizenberg to Kalk Bay (M2KB) - or vice-versa. The easiest way to do the whole series is to park at or near either station and get the train back from the other end (see train times here).
Otherwise the caches can be done in groups from and back to a convenient starting/parking place, or individually – several as park ‘n’ grabs.
The caches in the series are:
GC82N4H M2KB #1: Bailey's Cottage Short Multi
GC8349F M2KB #2: St James Walkway - Subway
GC8349J M2KB #3: St James Walkway - The Spring
GC8349J M2KB #4: St James Walkway - Ferocious Bush
GC8349K M2KB #5: St James Beach Short Multi
GC8349M M2KB #6: Danger Beach
GC8349Q M2KB #7: Metro and Mussels
GC8349V M2KB #8: Dalebrook Short Multi
GC8349W M2KB #9: Brass Bell
GC8349Z M2KB #10: Kalk Bay Short Multi
This cache, a screw-capped brown-taped plastic pot with room for several small trade items and trackables, is hidden near this historic building.
To find the cache:
Park road-side on Main Road close to the cottage @ S 34 6.753 E 18 27.973. After securing your vehicle (no valuables visible!), start with . . .
Step 1: go the short distance to S 34 6.777 E 18 27.969 where you will see a sign advising on what should not be done on the walkway. At the bottom of this is a 10-digit telephone number.
A = the alphanumeric value (A=1 B=2 C=3 etc) of the 5th digit of this number.
Note (15/11/23): The sign has fallen off and is illegible, so use the Spoiler photo in the Gallery
Step 2: move a few metres south to S 34 6.780 E 18 27.967 a large information board on ‘Colonial Occupation and Defence’. On the upper right of this is a painting by Captain Arthur Dillon showing Muizenberg Corner in 179B
Step 3: now pass under the railway to the grassy area directly above the beach where @ S 34 6.785 E 18 27.981 is a wooden bench placed in memory of ‘our beloved parents’.
C = the alphanumeric value of the 2nd letter (or 4th letter) of the parents’ surname.
Step 4: head along the trail above the cottage and at S 34 6.803 E 18 27.961 check the vertical number on the nearby railway post. You will see that the last/bottom digit = D
Update: info reported missing - use D=7
Step 5: continue to where you will find several more benches. The one nearest the cottage is dedicated to Wendy Bowie whose long and unusual middle name has E letters in it.
Step 6: finally proceed the short distance to S 34 6.818 E 18 27.951 the location of a new sign warning about the lack of railings along the walkway. The last digit of the emergency phone number shown on this sign = F
Update: info reported unavailable - use F=0
The cache can be found at:
S 34 6.ACD E 18 27.(E-2)(F+4)(B+4)
Bailey’s Cottage (1909) is a national monument – a thatched building between the railway line and the sea in front of the site of the Battle of Muizenberg. The slight rocky promontory on which it is built is shown, shown on current maps as Smelly Corner (!) is shown on an 1802 map as a gun battery.
Sir Abraham ('Abe') Bailey, a wealthy mining magnate (gold & diamonds), politician (an influential contemporary of Cecil John Rhodes), financier and cricketer (right-handed batsman for Transvaal), built an angling cottage on the fort which forms the foundations of the building. The kloof on the mountain opposite the cottage also bears his name.
In the 1930s he was one of the richest men on the planet. He lived until his death in 1940 just up and across the road at the impressive Rust-en-Vrede (Rest and Peace) which was designed as a holiday cottage(!) for Cecil John Rhodes by Sir Herbert Baker, a renowned local architect. Rhodes briefly used nearby Rhodes Cottage (preserved as a museum dedicated to Rhodes' life and (theoretically) open to the public) as his holiday house, but died in 1902 before Rust en Vrede was built. It was then bought by Bailey, who completed the building from the foundations upwards in 1904 according to the original plan.
He was married twice and his second wife Lady Mary Bailey with whom he had 5 children was a famous aviator. Between 9 March and 30 April 1928, she made an 8,000 mile solo flight from Croydon to Cape Town, flying a de Havilland Cirrus Moth with an extra fuel tank, then she made the return journey between September 1928 and 16 January 1929. This involved flying across the Congo, then along the southern edge of the Sahara and up the west coast of Africa, then across Spain and France back home again. It was the longest solo flight and longest flight accomplished by a woman that far. See here for a short video of her being met by her husband on arrival in South Africa after her outward trip.
Back to the cottage . . . some sources say that the concrete pillar off the 
point in front of Bailey’s Cottage once supported an angling platform or deck. However, others say it is actually a sad memorial to a child lost off the rocks here, more than a century ago.
The land has always belonged to the state - first the British Army and then the Department of Defence. Sir Abe got access and built his cottage in the 1920s, but in 1939 when WW2 broke out the use of the cottage reverted to the Royal Navy, who used it as an observation post.
Post-war and up to 1999, it was used to house naval officers. It then fell into disrepair and in December 2002 the Department of Public Works sold the building by public tender. It was re-thatched in January 2003 with dakriet (Cape thatching reed) at the expense of Public Works.
After years of neglect and vandalism, the cottage was repaired and renovated and is now leased out as an upmarket guest house.
See here for a short video of Bailey visiting London to watch his horse racing. One of his horses Bondsman was involved in a remarkable triple dead heat finish in the Auckland Park races at Johannesburg on 27 February 1923. The horse won the race when it was run off again later in the day.