Saturday 11 January 2014

Failed attemt to visit New Cave

By André Doussy 11 January 2014

A wise man once said “if the plan doesn't work, change the plan but never the goal”. The goal was to go caving, and that’s exactly what we did. The initial plan was to visit New Cave, also known as Shit Pit, Hades Cave, Quarry Cave or Wonderfontein III, but a failed attempt to try and find one of the entrances lead us to rather visit Wonderfontein.

The trip consisted of five people namely Steven Tucker, Rick Hunter, Christo Saayman, Pieter Theron and myself. As none of us have ever been to New Cave we didn't really know where to search for an entrance, or even if we were at the right location. I asked a local cattle herder if whether he knew where the cave might be. He wasn't very helpful because of the lack of being able to speak English.

After about an hour of searching we regrouped and decided to head to Wonderfontein and have a nice swim. This was the first cave I have ever done and didn't remember much of it except for the fact that it’s a wet cave.

Today we decided to be a little bit care-free about where we were going so we packed away the survey and just went wherever we felt like it. Graffiti arrows on the cave walls pointing in all different directions to exit didn't really help for my anxiety of getting lost underground. After everyone had enough of the cave we decided to consult the survey and in no time Steven had found our way out again.

Another good day of caving spent with some crazy people.


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