An Underground River and Garden in Cape Town

Cape Town's Secret Tunnels and Lost Rivers

You're now standing in the Company's Garden, with Table Mountain rising up in front of you with the cable car at the top. On the left hand side you can see Devil's Peak, and if you look to your right you can see a little bit of Lion's Head sticking out above the buildings. In front of you, you've got the Delville Wood memorial. It's a monument to commemorate the soldiers that died in the First World War.

Look at the lions' heads on there. There's water coming out of these heads. This tour is all about

water. It's about Cape Town, and why the city is here.

If you were standing here about 350 years ago there would be nothing here. The Khoi used to come from up-country, from Saldanha bay, during summertime, and feed their cattle here on the spring water that used to come off the mountain. And there were fields of fragrant rhenosterveld, which is type of bush. Eventually this rhenosterveld got all eaten up, and later it was cleared, and eventually it disappeared. You might still find some on the mountains, Tygerberg and Stellenbosch side, but you won't find it here in the city.

Now, look at the mountain closely. Down the centre of the mountain, you'll find there's a gorge. You can't see it so clearly, but you can see a cleft in the mountain; that is where the water originates. The main stream of this city was known as Camissa by the Khoisan. Camissa, translated, means 'the sweet water of Table Mountain'. It was then later changed to the the Vaarsche Rivier and it is now known as the Platteklip River.

On your left, Devil's Peak side, you can also ravines coming off there. Those are the Trafalgar ravines and all these things feed into the valley that we are standing in. It was a very fertile valley and that is why, when the first European ships came here, they thought this was a good place to stop and refresh. And they started building canals around the city.

On many days, you'll see a big cloud over Table Mountain, brought here by the famous South Easter wind. When the wind blows the hair off your head, you know that this cloud is full of water. This mountain in front of you is a sandstone sponge, and it soaks up all the water. The water disappears underground, and pops up again as artesian springs all over the city.

Those canals and springs made Cape Town what it is today. And that is what we'll explore on this walk.

Before we go, let me explain who I am, and how this will work. I'm Matthew, and I do Tunnel Tours in Cape Town. When I was studying architecture here in Cape Town, I decided to get into a man hole and go exploring. What I discovered was an amazing network of underground rivers, tunnels and chambers. I did more exploring and research, and started to take friends with me. Others found it just as fascinating, and so I started to take people on tours beneath the city.

All you need to do is listen to my voice. I'll tell you where to go, and tell you about the things we pass along the way. The audio will play automatically. So adjust your volume, put your phone away, and focus on your surroundings. If there is silence, don't worry. Just keep walking straight unless I tell you otherwise.

So, let's go. Turn your back to the mountain, and walk towards those large white columns and go down the steps. You can't see it now, but in the old days you would be looking over the seashore watching the sailing ships coming in. On your left-hand side you would have had a big canal running down the garden

Turn Left into Garden

We're turning left now, at the bottom of the stairs. Into the garden to an old canal in front of us. It's not really an old canal, it's just a replica of what this water system used to look like. Stop when you get to it.

This water came from the biggest spring on Table Mountain. That spring had a flow of about 2,5 million litres of water per day and it used to run into these reservoirs that they had at various places. You can see an old metal pipe there still at the top to your left and that is where the water used to run in. From there, it would then be channelled through little canals, like the one you can that you see here. These channels had little side channels where the water could run into the vegetable patches. You can see if you turn to look at the vegetable garden. They had little sluice gates that they could close, little wooden shutters, and they could block the water off and make the water run into certain patches. Turn to your left now, to carry on walking over the canal to the back of the garden.

Right to go through garden

We're going to make our way to the right and we're going to walk towards an old wagon. In the old days, they used to collect the vegetables here and then load them onto the wagons to take to the markets.

You can see there's all types of vegetables here. There's rocket, there's salad, there's chillies, there's artichokes, nice green lettuce, onions. Just keep walking to the end of the vegetable garden.

Directions out of the garden

Cape Town's Secret Tunnels and Lost Rivers along the small brick pathway that curves to the left towards the first aid room, and step down and walk along the path to the right of the building. Go back into the Company's Gardens through the wooden gate.

Directions Away From Mountain
Cape Town's Secret Tunnels and Lost Rivers

And then we're going to take a left again to walk on the gravel path with your back to Table Mountain towards the little restaurant in front of you.

Visitors Centre

On the left-hand side now you see the Company's Gardens Visitor's Centre. We're going to stop in front of the visitor's centre and look at an old tree trunk that is on the patio . You can see there's an old oak tree that fell over in the Company's Gardens and if you look closely, you'll see there is a water spout still stuck in it. This was one of the original pumps that used to be in the centre of the Company's Gardens.
I still have a picture of it with one of these crazy squirrels actually sitting inside this water sprout looking out on the other side. You can keep walking now, past the visitors centre.

Murdoch Fountain

Turn left onto the patch of grass next to it, with the metal object in the centre.

This is a drinking fountain fed from a spring. If you look closely you'll see the name "Murdoch" on it. The fountain was imported from England. It was for the people who used to walk here; they could refresh themselves on the spring water.

Let's get going again, back on the main path.

Company's Garden Restaurant
Can you smell it? You're coming to one of the nicest coffee shops in town. It's called the Company's Gardens Restaurant.

Do watch out for the squirrels in this place. They're quite hungry, so if you do find some peanuts on the way just be careful when you feed them, they can bite your finger and they scratch you.

Towards Slave Bell

I want to show you the slave bell. When you're walking with your back to the restaurant, you can see it ahead hanging in a white archway. I'll meet you there.

Slave Bell

The slave bell is not an original bell but it is an indication of what these slave bells used to look like. The bells used to be placed at the various farms or homesteads in town and they used to ring this early in the morning to call together the slaves to come to work. Also these bells were used for the washer ladies who used to do the washing along these canals.

The washer women used to gather at the top of town and they used to walk down this river into the city to pick up the washing from the passing ships. You can imagine how smelly that washing must have been. Then they would come back up this river, sing songs, and sometimes when I'm down below the city in the canals, doing the tours, I swear I can still I hear them singing.

We are now turning back to the path we just crossed, and turning right. You'll walk past the large bronze statue of Cecil John Rhodes.

Sundial and Old Tree

Now there's a sundial in front of you. Stop for just a moment and look to your left. On the grassy patch here behind the fence you can see there's a green fence. Behind it is the oldest tree in the gardens, the old pear tree. You can check it out if you like, and when you want to carry on, turn right here, at the sundial, to get to the other side of the garden.

Canal and Tuinhuis

Now we're going towards parliament, the grand building you can see ahead of you now. Walk right over to the gate in front of it, to stand on the bridge. In front of you now you can see the Tuinhuis, one of the famous places for entertaining guests in Cape Town.

To your right, you can see there's a wall. That wall over there is apparently as old as the castle! This little bridge is also one of the oldest bridges left in town. Now, Cape Town was laid out in a square pattern. Basically all these canals us ed to run dead straight down to the sea and then they would have little canals linking them sideways. All these canals needed to get crossed, so they had to build lots and lots of bridges. There were many bridges in Cape Town. There are only a handful of bridges left in Cape Town, and you're actually standing on one of them at the moment.

Retrace your steps into the gardens, through the white pillars, and then take the first concrete path to the right before we get back to the sundial.

Onwards down the path

Just keep walking straight down this path for now. While you're walking take note of all the pigeons. I don't think they're from around here. Where do they come from? Who knows? I call them the city rats. And, speaking of rats, if you look in between the trees sometimes you will also see a rat. There are many rats in the gardens. There are more rats here than in the tunnels below the city!

The Fernery

We are now coming to a little walkway to the right. You'll see a round paving stone on the ground labelled "The Fernery". Go in there.

You'll see a pond in front of you, and a little stream coming out. This is one of the springs that flows underground from the mountain. It comes into this pond and gets diverted into the canals. This water is crystal clear, as you can see.
We're going to walk over it now, along these stones, and over some more ponds. Keep going through the bamboo, where you might find people carving their little love stories on them.

Out the fernery, turn right and head out the main front gate of the gardens.

Canals

As you head out of the garden gates, notice the canal on your left hand side, with the little bridges going over it.

Onto Government Ave
Cape Town's Secret Tunnels and Lost Rivers n your right hand side you will see there's a big building, that is the assembly of parliament. On your left hand side is the National Library of South Africa, where they keep all the important books, dating back to the 1700s.

We have a canal going down on both sides of Government Avenue, where the gentlemen used to walk on their Sunday strolls, and they used to look at the vegetables and trees in the gardens here and enjoy themselves. They used to know this walk as a gentleman's walk.

Parliament

On your right, there's a fascinating building with all it's pillars and columns. That's the assembly hall. Stop and look up at the roof. There's a wooden structure with the little flag pole sticking out. And it's got little holes in the top - can you see those round circles? Now this hall was air conditioned in the old days by the spring water. That thing at the top was the cooling tower. So they used to pump the water to the top from the springs. The water would run down inside over little grates and the wind would blow through there and cool the water down. This is how they used to keep this hall cool in summertime when the important people gathered here. 

Now, turn around and look behind you, into the St George's Cathedral courtyard. There, you'll see the labyrinth. If you have time and the patience, you should come back here after our tour to do the labyrinth walk. It will really enlighten your spirits. 

For now, carry on walking down Government Avenue. 

A little further down, where the assembly building ends, walk over to the metal gate. You can see there are some big metal shutters on the ground in front of you. Can you see them? Just to the left of them is a little metal thing sticking out the ground. That is a valve - for if there was too much pressure. Deep below you are massive underground water reservoirs where they used to collect the spring water to supply the city, the slave lodge, and the assembly hall. So there was a huge collection point here, and they dug very deep down into the ground, into the bedrock, into the granite. I have been inside here, lifted the lids and gone down there, and I have discovered the secret tunnel that goes from here, below ground, and if you had to follow it, you would end up at the castle. Now, let's carry on to Adderley Street.

Past the Slave Lodge

In the old days, Adderley was known as the Heerengracht, which translates to the "gentlemen's canal". We are going to follow the pavement, walking past the front of the slave lodge. The slave lodge was able to hold over a thousand slaves. The slaves had to carry the water from the springs to their masters, and roll enormous water barrels to the ships, and they had to do all the horrible and dirty jobs nobody wanted to do.

The canal is now below you, running under the street, but in the old days it used to run on both sides of the street, and the street was cobbled with wooden blocks. Cross over the street ahead to walk next to the big grey church.

Church and Wooden blocks

This big church building on the right is the Groote Kerk, or the Big Church. stop here and take a look at it. It is the oldest church in South Africa, and it has the most amazing organ inside it. The biggest organ in the Southern hemisphere. Apparently they also keep the VOC treasure in there. The VOC stands for Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie... or maybe, "Very Old Church"!

And guess who is buried in this church? Cape Town's first governor : Simon van der Stel! Simon vd Stel lies in the bottom of the church, and there's an interesting story about this. Back then, there was a big burial vault beneath the church, with graves inside it. And during winter time when the water table used to rise, these coffins used to swim. One day, they were having a church service and the whole floor caved in, and the benches full of people fell into the bottom of the graves. They eventually had to take the coffins out of there because it was just too wet for them, and they buried them on the other side of the church.

Now, turn and have a closer look at the pavement. Over the cycle path on the left. You'll see a different looking patch of pavement. It's made of wooden blocks, and that's what the whole of Adderley Street looked like in the early 1900s. Before then, winter left the streets wet and muddy, and cobblestones made too much noise with the metal wagon wheels used to roll over them. So they changed the cobble stones to wooden blocks.
Right, carry on down Adderley street now.

Carry On Down Adderley

Remember there is a very old canal below you. But in the 1800s, these canals started filling up with a lot of rubbish. They became very smelly, so the city decided they couldn't have these open canals any more. They covered over the city's waterways, and it took them at least 35 years to cover them all. But by 1875, these canals had all disappeared. Nobody really knew that there were canals underneath the city. Until, in 1900, that changed. Come on, a little further down Adderley Street, and I'll tell you what happened.

Explosions

Flower sellers

We are now passing Trafalgar Place. You will see on your right all these beautiful flowers being sold. Many of these flower stands have been passed down for generations of women, going back two centuries.
Carry on now, still going straight on Adderley.

Golden Acre

We are now going to go underground. You might lose GPS reception, but if you listen carefully to my directions you won't get lost. If you feel like you're getting left behind just pause the recording and press play again once you have caught up.

Just after the McDonald's sign turn right into the Golden Acre shopping centre. As soon as you're inside, turn left to go down the escalator or steps. Go down one level; don't go all the way down to the bottom.

Once you get one level down, turn to the right and walk through the shopping centre.

While they were building this centre, they unearthed quite a lot of canals below: the side canals that used to run down Strand Street. Inside here, you'll find the first reservoir that was built in Cape Town. If you can see the Mr Price you're close. Keep going, and you should soon see it popping up around the corner on your right, behind a large glass case.

When you get to the large glass case, stop and look inside.

This was the oldest reservoir in Cape Town. It was known as the Wagenaars Reservoir, and it was built in 1663, by Zacharias Wagenaar. What they excavated here is just the front part of it. The reservoir was fed by the main springs. Slaves would roll old Oak barrels up to it, and they'd fill them and roll them back down to a jetty, which was just behind where you're standing now. They'd hook them on the crane, lower them onto little rowing boats, and row them out to the ships.

Walk to your left now, to enter the little passageway that goes towards the staircase on the other side of the glass. Before you reach the steps, look inside the glass cabinets in the hallway and you'll see a model of what Cape Town looked like when the first Europeans arrived here. You can see the little figures rolling the barrels down the jetty, loading them onto the rowing boats, and taking it to the ships. Remember the sailors used to spend between 3 and 6 months on the ships so by the time they got here, the only water they had left was often stale and rotten, and they were very thirsty. Cape Town was known as the Tavern of the Seas. You can imagine when the sailors came, they would like to go and visit the bars and pubs around here. The oldest pub in town is Perseverance Tavern, which is still open.

Okay, let's go down the steps. Once you get to the bottom, you're going to turn right, and walk straight toward the escalators.

We need to get back outside now, so listen closely. Go up the escalators, and then straight out of the building. Once you emerge from the building, turn right and I'll meet you once you get out from under the roof, at the corner by the sign that says "Grand Central".

Back into the outdoors

You're back out in the open now. Stop here and look back towards Golden Acre. The main road you can see is Strand Street, which means "Beach Street", and that is where the beach used to be. The land was reclaimed after the second world war.

Now turn back to face Table Mountain, and you'll see the city hall clock tower ahead. Diagonally across the road, you'll see a market with food stall, and a metal archway saying "Grand Parade". That's where the original fort stood. Go there now.

The street we're crossing used to be the path of one of the main rivers. The Dutch didn't like the river here in this part of town, because it used to flood and it actually washed the fort away. The old fort only lasted for about 10 years.

Into the market
Cape Town's Secret Tunnels and Lost Rivers

This is where the old fort used to stand, and if you keep an eye on the paving below you'll see a row of darker cobblestones showing exactly where the wall was.

Now, we're going to make our way through this market. Walk through the metal arch that says "Grand parade", and head towards city hall. While you're in Cape Town, remember that there are many many different cultures, and so there are also many interesting things to eat. In the stalls to the right, you'll find Malay food. You get curry dishes. You also get Gatsby's, which are big rolls filled with chips and sauce and meat. If you want to see some enormous fish later, you should by a bread-roll or a half-loaf of bread here.

Towards City Hall

Once you get to the end, take a left to walk along the grand parade in front of the city hall. Now you're walking on top of one of the oldest canals in Cape Town known as the Keizersgracht, the Emperor's Canal.

Man holes

Most people who walk here are looking up at the mountain and the clock tower of the grand old city hall, but look down on the ground. You're coming up to a manhole. Stop when you reach it, and if you get down on your knees and peer through the hole you'll see the river flowing far below you. Can you see it?

The canal is very old. The brick tunnel dates back to the 1830's - but even before then, it was made out of clay and Table Mountain rock. When the British took over the Cape in the early 1800s, they brought in Victorian bricks from England, and they lined all these canals with Victorian brick. It was a very hard brick, baked at over a thousand degrees, and it could withstand the acidity of CTs water. CT's water has a PH of about 5. The acidity comes from the fynbos that it runs through. It also gets a slightly brown colour from there as well.

We need to follow the stream across the parade ground. From here, go diagonally across the parade ground, towards the castle. Aim for that tall spotlight. Sometimes the parade is closed off for events, and if that happens you can just walk around it, to get to the castle on the other side.

Just below that tall light is another man hole. One time, I went down in the hole on Adderley street to explore the tunnels, and I walked below Adderley street, under the railway station, and then to the parade. And I needed a place to get out, because you can't just get out anywhere, you know. You can't open up a man hole in the middle of the road - a car will drive over you! It's like the movies, you know?
So I had to find a place to get out and I opened up the man hole here on the parade ground, and while I was opening it up, a whole bunch of people surrounded me and they wanted to arrest me! So, I said "What's going on here?" So they said to me, "We're busy shooting a movie here!"
And this was apparently an American security camp that they had put up on top of this man hole, that I popped out of, and they tried to arrest me. So there was a big commotion. I had to show them my tourist guide card and explain that I had to do these underground tours. You know, I'm like a mole in the city! And they said, "Oh, okay, everything is fine, you just carry on with whatever you're doing." And everyone was happy in the end.
So from this man hole, we're going to make our way to the castle. Head for the main entranceway with the pillars with the lions on top.

Cross the road to the castle

Cross the road, and walk onto the bridge over the Castle moat.

The Moat

Stop here on the bridge. If you look at the castle moat, you can see that it's quite deep. People in the old days couldn't really swim, so they couldn't get across. Now that the castle moat has filled up with a lot of mud you can actually walk across. I wouldn't though. I'll show you why.

If you bought bread at the market, now is the time to get it out. Now, throw some of the bread into the water and see what happens... this water has the castle piranhas in it! And you can actually see them gliding just below the surface. But if you throw bread in here, they will go crazy. I have seen one of those fish swallow a duck. There's Tallapia, there's carp and there's Koi. And those Koi are as big as you! They're massive. I was standing here, and the duck suddenly disappeared underwater, and it never came back again.

Another thing I've seen here is the reverse. I saw a Cape Heron here, sitting here on the walls fishing, and he jumped into the water and he grabbed the fish. But the fish was so big it got stuck in his throat! And he stood there for half an hour and couldn't get the fish down. That's how big the fish are.

These fish are very aggressive in here. Ask anyone around here, they'll tell you the same stories. The guys who live around here are careful around this water. I wouldn't want to fall in here.

Now carry on into the castle through the pillars with the lions.

Up the hill

Look for a triangular building in front of you. Turn left before it, and jump up the wall - a bit of exercise is good! Up one massive step onto the grass, and up one more step past the triangular building.

Into the cannon port
Cape Town's Secret Tunnels and Lost Rivers

Walk into the cannon port on the left - the first gap in the stone wall, and take a look across the water. Can you see an old tunnel in the wall? The round hole on the opposite bank?

If you had to follow that tunnel, it would take you to parliament, where I showed you the secret tunnel earlier in the walk. From here, turn around and walk to the castle entrance with the dome up at the top.

Turn right before the entrance
Cape Town's Secret Tunnels and Lost Rivers

Now, we're not going inside the castle. Just before the main entrance, turn right between the bollards - they are made from cannons! Then, follow the pathway around the side of the castle.

Leerdam

If we follow this pathway, we are walking along the castle walls, and looking towards Lion's head. The castle wall you're passing now is known as Leerdam Bastion, and that is where they used to do public hangings in the old days. That was a way of punishment, and it was a warning for people that when you came to this city you did not come to make any trouble.

The gallows that were over here were later moved to the white building that you see ahead of you on the other side of the wall. So the gallows were right next to the canal. They also used to torture people there and leave them for dead. The wild dogs and hyenas would come out at night and drag the bones into the canals. They used to eat everything up, and sometimes bones would be left over. And when we go in the canals we sometimes still find old bones down there.

Keep following the path around the castle.

Through the parking lot and over the bridge

Now we go through a little brick archway, into a parking lot. Here on the right, you'll find another gate. We're going to go out there, and walk over another bridge - this one is not so old.

Through the parking lot and over the bridge

Now we go through a little brick archway, into a parking lot. Here on the right, you'll find another gate. We're going to go out there, and walk over another bridge - this one is not so old.

Left onto the gravel path

On the left, there is a row of rose bushes, and we're going to follow the little gravel path that way.

Remember, before the land was reclaimed, the castle was built on the beach. The sea water used to wash right against it's front wall on the other side. And at high tide, the sea water ran all the way around the castle. So the moat was actually filled with sea water.

Eventually, when they reclaimed the land in the front, there was no more sea water, and then they diverted the Platteklip stream to run into the castle moat. It doesn't anymore - the river now runs straight into the sea. I think it's such a waste of water. Our aim is to have the water running back into the canal one day.

Through the narrow gap

There's a very narrow passage in front of you, with metal bars overhead.

The Old Mill House
Cape Town's Secret Tunnels and Lost Rivers

Stop underneath the metal bars, and look over the wall to the right. You can see the white building on the other side of the road, called "The Old Mill House". The river used to come past the old mill house, down Canterbury Street. Inside the mill house there is still a marking on the wall where the sluice gate for the water mill used to be. These rivers had many water mills along them. To grind barley, wheat, to make the beer, and the whiskey and the nice VOC brandy, and to grind all the spices that came here. The curries, the peppers, the saffron. All the nice spices from India. They would grind them here, pack them and get them ready for the next trip.

Keep walking now, through the gap, following the path to the left.

You are now walking in the river! It's now filled up, but you can see the stone wall of the moat poking out on the side. It's been filled up with rubble and soil and a lot of rubbish. If you look on your right hand side you'll see a massive tree. This is a wild fig tree. Look the roots on this tree, and you can see how gnarled they are. They are growing over the river beneath us.

Dungeon and a man hole

To your left, you'll see a doorway. The doorway used to go into the castle, and it was wide enough to fit an ox wagon. But they closed it all up and they made it into a dungeon, where they used to lock up people. Now there's a ghost living in there.

Now look on your right hand side. This is the only place in town where the canal is exposed. It goes about 7-8 metres below the city; very, very deep. Go up the step, and have a look through the lid, to see what's in the bottom. You'll hear it as well: running water.
This is the end of our tour. If you would like to come on a tunnel tour, tap on my picture in the app, and you'll find my contact details there. Email me and I'll let you know when we can fit you in to take you below the city.
Now, I'd recommend visiting the Castle, if you have time. There is a nominal fee at the entrance, but it's really worth it. Inside the Castle, if it's a good day, you can get into a horse drawn carriage for a tour back to the Company Gardens.
For now, goodbye, and thank you for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed hearing about the secret underground story of the city!