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Home » Destinations » Africa » South Africa

Spelunking In The Cango Caves

Modified: Jan 14, 2024 · Published: Nov 6, 2008 by Dave Lee |

I booked tour "C" through the hostel, which consisted of transport to the Cango Caves and an ostrich show farm, leaving me with a mountain bike ride of 12 kilometers back to town, along the way passing a wilderness park where I would get up close and personal with a few cheetahs.  

Cave

Lonely Planet describes the caves as commercialized, and I saw what they meant once the tour began.  We were not given headlamps or helmets, and all the pathways were smoothed by concrete and lit by ankle-level lights. 

Still, my four companions (two Irish lasses and two Dutch girls) and I hoped for a little extra excitement by choosing the longer "adventure" tour. 

As we got deeper into the caves, the spaces started to narrow. The most difficult maneuvers were so tight that we had left our cameras behind. 

The Devil's Chimney was a 3.6-meter upward crawl in a chimney-like feature with an average diameter of 90 centimeters. In other words, it was damn tight. 

The ladder to the tighter sections

All the ladies went first, and I sighed in relief each time our guide-in-training, Shane, confirmed another got through OK. 

It was the tightest and longest space I'd navigated in my sparse experience as a spelunker. 

I slithered on my stomach at a quick pace, hoping the speed would ensure I did not get stuck. The surface against my stomach was smooth, so I didn't hit any snags. 

Once through, the four of us were in a small chamber, with the only exit being the Letterbox, a 5-meter crawl with a 60-centimeter roof-to-floor clearance. 

Again, I was on my stomach, hoping not to get stuck. The girls all made it through first, and I made haste to catch up to them all. 

It was a short-lived adventure, yet it did register a bit on the adrenaline meter for those few seconds you are encased in tons of rock!

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About Dave Lee

Dave is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Go Backpacking and Feastio. He's been to 68 countries and lived in Colombia and Peru. Read the full story of how he became a travel blogger.

Comments

  1. Debo Hobo says

    November 06, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    Gosh that sounds like an thrilling adventure. I probably would have passed out from all the closeness.

  2. Debo Hobo says

    November 06, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    Gosh that sounds like an thrilling adventure. I probably would have passed out from all the closeness.

  3. Tigger says

    April 28, 2009 at 11:58 pm

    Could you give me the website you used to book this?

  4. Tigger says

    April 28, 2009 at 6:58 pm

    Could you give me the website you used to book this?

  5. Dave says

    April 30, 2009 at 5:52 pm

    I booked it as part of a little package from the hostel in Outdshorn.

  6. Dave says

    April 30, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    I booked it as part of a little package from the hostel in Outdshorn.

  7. Cango Caves says

    March 29, 2010 at 12:08 am

    The town of Oudtshoorn is situated in the valley between the mountain ranges of the Outeniqua and the Swartberg eithin the Klein Karoo region of South Africa.It is probably one of the most diverse in terms of its extra-ordinary mixture of nature and heritage as well as the fact that it has the world's biggest population of commercially farmed ostriches.

Dave at Ahu Ko Te Riku on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile.

Hi, I'm Dave

Editor in Chief

I've been writing about adventure travel on Go Backpacking since 2007. I've visited 68 countries.

Read more about Dave.

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