The Silvermine gate opened 15 minutes late, so we headed out a little later than we would have liked, after a brief chat about caves. We made quick work of the hike up to Ystervark Cave, following the cairns for the most part along the non-existent path.
The cave entrance saw a variety of “worm moves” and the “sideways salamander” as everyone morphed themselves into weird shapes to get inside. The porcupine from a few months before had long since vanished, probably due to a hungry animal of sorts, with the only evidence left being an abundance of scattered quills. Not even a skeleton!
We posed for a group photo in “Boetie se Kamer” and then the proper exploration began with us going down all the passages except for one dubbed the “danger passage”. We went all the way to the deepest part of the cave (the “M” passage) and then explored a very tight side chamber on the way back.
The trip out was less eventful, with everyone having gained some experience in wriggling. We cleaned ourselves off a bit and headed up to the Hyrax Caverns next with some off-path hiking. Here we had some much-needed sustenance and chilled and chatted for a bit.
Running a little short on time, we decided to head to the Amphitheatre and popped into Blue Disa Cave and then Egyptian Cave. Everyone made it through the tight squeeze into the next chamber, and we all did the “slide” on the way back (which was discovered the week before with the Tartarus group). With all the caving done for the day, we headed back towards the cars and were back at Gate 2 around 14:45.
