We set out from Ou Kraal shortly after 8am on Sunday, expecting the mist to clear, little wind, and a full day of excellent caving. Unfortunately, we navigated in the mist almost the entire way, and the wind never let up at all. But the caving, at least, was good!
After a little detour hunting for Prism Cave in the Spes Bona Valley, we made our way up to Tartarus Cave. The cave was wet, but thankfully the water drains well into the several deep pits, so we were able to navigate it without too much trouble. We split into two groups, with one group doing an easy short circular crawl while the other braved the descent to the 8m pit in the main chamber. Thanks to a rope, everyone managed it without falling into the pit, which we’ll count as a win!
After swapping the groups and grabbing a quick coffee while admiring the sandstone features of the cave, it was time to head out into the mist again. We decided on the south entrance of Muizenberg Cave, but this proved difficult because we could not actually see the cliff face where the entrance was. So we all fanned out looking for “a hole”. We soon found it, and what followed was a weird kind of “Marco Polo” game to find each other again.
The crawl through Muizenberg Cave was thankfully quite dry and relatively clean, although there was evidence of recent fires. Everyone handled the first section comfortably, flat on their stomachs, before emerging next to Leslie’s Grotto for a picture. We attempted a small tunnel that proved to be too full of broken glass to continue through, so we opted to go back the way we came, emerging at the other south entrance. We quickly washed our hands as best we could and ate lunch before proceeding to St James Peak.
One of the party took a tumble on the path, but our team’s doctor, Emily, quickly sorted them out amidst many helpful hands, and we got back on track quickly. It turned out there was also a group that had made a fire at Labyrinth Cave, and we chatted to some rangers who had pitched up to chase them off and put out the fire. We took the entire team of 15 through the long tunnels with sparkling roofs, amidst many “oohs” and “aahs”, followed by a chorus of “We must go where?” when we reached the tight squeeze section.
Everyone handled the tight squeezes like champs, although admittedly some were more graceful than others! We grabbed a couple of bags of litter and started making our way down St James Peak. The return trip was rather uneventful, and we were back at the cars by 3:25pm, with a successful day of caving behind us.
Photo credits: Betsey Adams, Charmaine Kritzinger, Daniel Greaves, Wimpie Immelman
