General cave discussion

I wonder if anyone could give me a bit of guidance.
I hiked a fair amount of the Southern Drakensberg
when i lived in Dbn , many years ago.
I'm now in Jhb and would like to try out the central/northern region
at the end of Feb.
From browsing the web two caves appear popular for over night stays.
Marble baths cave & lower injusuti cave. They also seem to have nice pools enroute'.
Which of these caves would you recommend ?
And is there a route option to include Marble baths if we were to stay at lower Injusuti cave ?

looking forward to any assistance

Mike

Hi Mike

Of the two caves, LIC is the most comfortable (haven't slept in MBC, but it is clearly inferior to LIC) - good shelter, plenty of space, even some straw on the cave floor and some stone walls for (dubious?) shelter from the wind.

Both have very nice pools for swimming/bathing, but MBC is a bit closer to its water, and the Marble Baths could provide a bit more fun (you MUST ride the supertube! - photo below).

The only path connecting the two caves is via the Marble Baths Fork. One route which will provide some stunning views of the escarpment and visits to three or four valleys, would be to walk from the camp to Centenary Hut (via Fergy's cave - no camping allowed there), then along the contour path and down the ridge to LIC, then down the valley to Marble Baths Fork and up to Marble Baths (and the cave), and from there you can walk straight back to camp or follow the contour path to Grindstone Cave or Old Woman stream.

Of all the lower berg areas I have visited, Injasuthi is the most beautiful. It also has some of the most impressive stretches of escarpment in the berg.



Hope this helped. Enjoy!

Injusuti can also be the hell of the lost hiker so please make sure you have decent pre-planned routes/ GPS tracks to follow because this time of the year lower down the paths are mostly overgrown and hard to follow.
Most beautiful and intimidating(depending what your doing) part of the berg in my opinion.

Cheers

MBC anex is the better cave to sleep in, more of a cave that the main cave, and only around the corner of the main cave.

Thanks so much for the info - will keep you posted.

I assume if you refer to Marble Baths Annex you refer to Junction Cave which is about 500m below marble baths on the right bank of the river - very good cave with the river literally on your doorstep. This in itself can be a problem in very wet flood conditions although I have never seen the river high enough here to create a problem - just play it by ear.Two ways to access - scramble down the river from Marble Baths in dryer conditions, else walk down teh valley from the Marble baths cave untill you are in clear view of the confluence of the Marble Baths river and teh tributary that enters from teh north - go down to the river and follow its right bank untill yo get to the cave. The road to Injasuthi is doable in a Citi Golf. It is in need of maintenance and gettng worse but stil OK if you take care.

If you don't like river corssings stay away from Ijasuthi area in summer - you will get wet. It is however quite dry here at the moment so should be OK.

The road is'nt that bad, just try to dodge the tar patches. The authorities should just convert it back to a gravel road, think it will be easier to maintain.