Crawling underground in Cango Cave South Africa
Entering the Tunnel of Love
I really enjoy crawling around underground and sliding through small holes surrounded by mother earth. Call me crazy. And yea, I know caving isn’t for everybody, especially claustrophobics. Not my problem. Just don’t take me to a crowded shopping mall.
After a great night’s rest at The Red House B&B in George I headed inland towards Oudtshoorn, destination Cango Cave.
The drive over the Outeniqua Mountains was fabulous.
And the Klein Karoo is rich in vineyards and ostriches.
Cango Cave offers two tours, Standard and Adventure.
Not too hard to figure out which tour I went for.
I joined my tour group of about 20 people plus a very competent guide and we entered the 67F/18C degree cave for a 1 1/2 hour tour.
The cave formed in limestone deposited by an ancient sea about 800 million years ago followed by uplift 100s of millions years later.
Artifacts like pot fragments, bone and stone points and ostrich shell beads, pictographs and hearths found at the cave opening indicate early hunter/gatherers used the cave up to 80,000 years ago followed by more modern herders.
Walking over 200 steps on Jacob’s Ladder led us deeper into the cave beyond the typical “Standard” tour route and past some exquisite cave formations. Then the Tunnel of Love starts the challenge of squeeze as seen in the first photo.
But the Devil’s Chimney proved to be the trickiest. And some people didn’t do it and where fortunate that there as a loop back.
After squirming through the chimney into a larger chamber I confronted an even smaller opening at the Devil’s Postbox where I crawled on my belly a couple body lengths and finally slid on my butt…
…returning to The Coffin, which is the beginning and end of the final circular route.
This was an awesome cave and I saw a lot of places I wanted to crawl into, if it had been allowed. Yet the road called so I backtracked to the Cango Ostrich Farm where you can see me tangle with one of those bad boys.