Ronan’s Well (Snake Pit)
Devil’s Pit
Oread Halls
Unknown Cave aka Graffiti Cave
Boomslang Cave
10 January 2023
Who Names These Caves?
On Tuesday 10 January 2023, The Amir summonsed, no, no, no, I am kidding… Chucky and I were invited to join a hike exploring some of the many, many, caves in the mountains above Kalk Bay.
But first let me give a birthday shout out to my habibi on her birthday on 10 January:
Kalk Bay aka 'Kalkies'
I hardly hike on this side of the world, but here I find myself within the span of 3 days, doing 2 hikes in the South Peninsula … you know on the southern suburbs line if you were taking a train (had the rail system not been totally decimated by ANC corruption).
Not going there again. But some of my fondest memories are of jumping on a train to Simonstown.
First with my late grandmother, to picnic on Muizenberg beach, then later as a young teen with my mates to St James beach to swim in the tidal pool, or with my cousins to Seaforth beach, which may have been one of the few ‘Non-Whites Only’ beaches on that side of Cape Town during the Apartheid years.
Isn’t it funny how 26 years after Apartheid ended officially, we still mostly go to the beaches we went to as children?
Read an interesting article this week about how people habitually flock to ‘their’ beaches, even if their is literally raw sewerage spilling into the ocean.
Was it Samuel Johnson who said, “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken”?
The train line ends at Simonstown. Now the train line barely runs, and if it does, only as far as Fish Hoek. This is simply due to mismanagement of the trust placed in South Africans by the ruling party who used their positions of power to enrich themselves, their friends, and their cronies, growing rich on the fat of Apartheid, instead of maintaining our nation’s critical infrastructure.
Yes, Comrades, your leaders have grown obese off the fruits of Apartheid. /rant off/
Kalk Bay is the quintessential fishing village.
With the declaration of the Group Areas Act in 1967, about a quarter of the non-white families were displaced to Ocean View, far from the fecund waters of False Bay teeming with fish, rock lobster and all manner of marine life.
But due to opposition by the community, 75% were allowed to remain in Kalk Bay, where their descendants live to this day, making ‘Kalkies’ one of the few mixed race areas during Apartheid South Africa.
Kalk Bay or Kalk Baai (in Afrikaans) is translated verbatim into ‘Lime Bay’, so named for the lime mined from the abundant mussel shells along the shoreline.
Early inhabitants used to burn the mussel shells to make lime. Apparently (I have lived in Cape Town all my life and been to Kalk Bay many times, besides running through it in various stages of exhaustion on the Peninsula and/or Two Oceans Marathons) these lime kilns can still be found along the coast.
I will need to check this out when I next run the Peninsula half marathon on 19 Febuary 2023. (In fact, Chucky and I will be attending an event for the fishing community on 29 January… I will post an update here.)
Today Kalk Bay is famous for its bohemian character, it’s quaint shops, where boho chick meets surfer dude, and it’s eclectic eating establishments.
Kalk Bay Caves
There are 80 (Eighty. Eighty!) caves in the mountains above Kalk Bay, many of them had been meticulously documented and mapped in the 1920s and 30s by John Meyer.
Although others, not John Meyer, had already named most of them. Inneresting stuff.
I was today years old when I learned about these 80 caves. The more I learn the less I know.
Every hour of every day I’m learning more
The more I learn
The less I know about before
The less I know the more I want to look around
Digging deep for clues on higher ground
UB40
John Meyer was part of a group of caving enthusiasts who called themselves ‘The Moles’.
The Moles explored, documented and mapped these 80 caves. Of the 80, only 12 are particularly well-known, viz:
Clovelly Cave
Boomslang Cave
Devil’s Pit
Leap Year Grottoes
Picnic Cave
Ronan’s Well
Egyptian Cave
Johalvin Cave
Vier Grotte
Tartarus Cave
Kliphuis (Muizenberg Cave)
The Labyrinth
Before today, I had only ever done The Boomslang Cave, Tartarus Cave (my favourite, cos we can never find it and when we do, we are overjoyed!) and the one The Amir aptly renamed “The Snakepit”, which is probably better-known as “Ronan’s Well”.
We would not be doing Tartarus Caves today, but definitely ‘Boomslang’.
Moon and stars sit way up high
Earth and trees beneath them lie
The wind blows fragrant lullaby
To cool the night for you and I
On the wing the birds fly free
Leviathan tames angry sea
Flower waits for honeybee
The sunrise wakes new life in me
UB40
Echo Valley
“Echo Valley”, so named because it echoes… yes, try it.
Now that I have pointed out the obvious… The hike starts at the Echo Valley sign on Boyes Drive. The trail hill-ups directly from the tarred road, no respite, which presented a challenge for some of the young’uns who joined us.
We were about 17 pax, including several hyper-enthusiastic kiddos.
The path follows a series of stone steps, eventually getting to a memorial of sorts, called “Weary Willy’s” where we took a break.
There is a sweet little brook close by and shade provided by some considerate trees where you can also fill your water bottle.
All the water in the Table Mountain National Park is delicious and safe to drink.
We found some helpful directional markers for the directionally-challenged, like me, along the way.
I hope these guys didn’t realise I was taking a pic as a photographic breadcrumb in case I got lost!
Ronan's Well
The internet says the name of this cave is Ronan’s Well.
I’m going with The Amir’s name and calling it the more appropriate, The Snake Pit.
Inside this cave, after you have clambered up a mossy, slippery rock gully, and slithered between a narrow cavern, you are confronted by a rock shaped like the head of a spitting cobra.
It’s quite magnificent. I did not have the wherewithal to take a picture, which I regret ☹
There is no way through at this point unless you have climbing rope. I am not sure where it comes out. We obviously, especially with the littlies, had no intention of going any further. Which meant we had to climb back down that slippery, mossy gully.
This freaked me out a little… as you can tell by the look on my face. I’ve been in this cave before, and this was the only moment I remembered.
Luckily, The Amir was there to make sure someone took a picture if I fell.
There was some drama and some tears at this cave.
But most braved their fears and made it! There were many whoops and high-fives coming out. The sense of accomplishment was palpable!
Sadly, my Chucky was not one of those brave souls. He chose to wait outside, sunning himself on a rock like a lizard.
Belly of the beast!
Sea As Far As The Eye Can See
Once out of the ‘Snake Pit’, we crossed a rocky plateau. The sun had broken through the clouds and burned off some of the mist, show-casing a bird’s eye view of the coastline.
Below us, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, Clovelly, Glencairn and Simonstown basked in the morning light.
We came to a fenced off area where a cave opening ran into the mountain. This could possibly be called Devils Pit.
Legend has it someone died there and for this reason the mouth to the cave had been fenced off.
This did not stop a few Curious George’s from taking a closer look.
After this I had no idea where I was. Cape Town… somewhere… I think…?
Oread Halls
Edit: I forgot this cave! We had to climb down and then slither through several chambers. Not for the claustrophobic.
Thanks to the The Amir for the reminder.
Unknown Cave
Anyway, we reached another hole in the wall that looked interesting.
Even The Amir did not know what the cave was called.
Some of us ventured in. Only to emerge several minutes later having discovered that were able to leopard-crawl through narrow rock passages and contort our bodies into unflattering shapes.
I felt like a balloon animal.
I did, however, manage to take photos of graffiti (bad!) by some modern Neanderthals.
Graffiti is not cool, kids. Except if it’s done in an urban environment. I appreciate graffiti in the city, but not in nature. It’s like alien vegetation; needs to be eliminated.
Until advised otherwise, I will rename this cave, Graffiti Cave.
Boomslang Cave
Who and why they named it the Boomslang Cave, I would like to know.
A boomslang (‘tree snake’ in Afrikaans) is a venomous snake that, as its name alludes, can be found slithering in trees, between branches, beautifully camouflaged by leaves and other vegetation.
Snakes don’t repel me. Some human beings repel me a lot more. I don’t necessarily want one as a pet, but I am not afraid of them. This does not mean I won’t get the fright of my life if suddenly confronted by one of them on a trail.
I have not been confronted by a snake yet.
This is arguably the most well-known and most-visited cave in the area. I am happy to report that not one boomslang was encountered during our sojourn into the limestone(?) caves.
I was amazed at the luminescent algae on the cave walls.
Some of the youngsters couldn’t understand why the floor of the cave was so sandy. One speculated that someone (who would have the time or inclination? but I love the imagination involved) shovelled sand into the caves. I wiped the roof of the cave and the sand came off in my hand, demonstrating the porousness of the limestone.
Nobody would go to the trouble of shovelling sand into a cave for our recreational purpose. I don’t think.
We took a snack break in the belly of the Boomslang.
The kids were starved, as was I.
We took extra care to make sure we left nothing behind and carried all our rubbish out with us.
Sadly, we neither saw nor heard any bats. Yes, here there be bats! Please be considerate and try not to disturb them.
(Edit: Apparantly there were indeed bats, I just was not paying attention and did not look up to see them. )
When we exited on the Echo Valley side, having entered the cave on the Kalk Bay side, the kiddos were fascinated to hear their own voices echoing through the valley.
The older we get, the more cynical we become.
Often, our cynicism robs us of the ability to marvel at inconsequential things. So it’s always endearing to see the world through a child’s eyes.
I was tempted to give a shout out to valley myself,.
The mist and clouds had relented, giving the day up to the summer sun. I am pleased to say that I was covered in sand and dirt and quite happy for it.
Its been a long time since I literally played in the sand.
Now I am curious about the other 76 caves above Kalk Bay that I have yet to explore!
2023 Goals?
The fishes swim while rivers run
Through fields to feast my eyes upon
Intoxicated drinking from
The loving cup of burning sun
Higher Ground (UB40)
Sources:
Caving Kalk Bay History – Kalk Bay Caves (cavingkalkbay.co.za)
SURVEY_Oread_Halls_1980s.cdr (darklife.co.za)
Wikipedia Kalk Bay – Wikipedia
Photographs courtesy of M Abbas
Love the political and historical take in this article! Not to mention the UB 40 and Shakespeare references! Brilliantly written and stunning pics too! Looking forward to the next read!
Interesting can’t wait to Explore those caves with you