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All the local Basutos and many others mistakenly believe that the escarpment edge is the border, and it seems natural to the human eye that it should be. However, land wars are often about water, and most borders are the results of wars. The real border is the drainage divide - if the water flows into South Africa, the land is in South Africa (and vice versa). The escarpment for the most part IS the border, except for the "Castles" and "Buttresses", some of which are unnamed. The Tugela drainage, while it does not have a castle or buttress designation, is in SA. Should be called the Tugela Buttress! In fact, on my maps, if a buttress does not have a name, I give it one, so I can talk about it, or be aware that I am on the SA slope.

Surprisingly, most of the escarpment caves are in South Africa, the big exception being Bannerman. This may be artifice of the usage - we hikers use the ones near the edge, and many are below the edge in SA. But then you would still expect a 50/50 distribution for the ones behind the edge, yet most are on the Castles and Buttresses! There must be some explanation, even one that says I am wrong, but I am not aware of any. Does anyone know an explanation?

Hmm, interesting observation! I've been going through the escarpment caves in my mind and the only other one that one could safely place in the list of exceptions is Senotlolong Shelter, a rather large cave used by the Basutho shepherds in the Bushman's Neck area. But even these caves are closely associated with the watershed.

I am sure that at least part of the explanation is that the caves lying further in are simply not documented. Having said that, I have done a fair bit of hiking in those parts and to date I have not found any impressive caves there (along the lines of Didima and Injasuthi Summit Cave) - only simple overhangs.

One explanation may be water volumes. Theoretically there is more rain on the watershed and this in turn creates more seepage which forms caves.

Let's do some more exploring and prove ourselves wrong or right!