Pillar Cave Annexe

Next time I'm at Garden Castle (last weekend of October) I am planning on doing some cave hunting, obveously I know Pillar Cave, Pillar Cave Annex and Cod's Eye Cave, but has anyone ever checked out the other caves I've marked on this picture (these are the names I will allocate to the caves if they are currently unnamed):

That is an interesting shot. Just remember that the angle of the sun is casting quite a shadow, and it might make it look more cave or overhang-like 'is there even such a word' than it actually is. But enjoy exploring.

Rapunzel's Cave is unlikely to be much use, and (other than Clam Shell Cave), none of them are in a useful location, but it would be interesting to see what they are like. I must remember to get GPS co-ords when I'm there...

Smurfatefrog wrote: I know Ghaz will have 156416 pics of it but he's not much use now

I was sitting at Witsieshoek in their lounge watching "How Stuff's Made" explain how they make jelly beans when you posted this... A full post a full story on that soon.

PC Annex is a smallish cave with a very low roof. It is difficult to find if you haven't been there before. Personally I prefer Pillar as it is flat, well sheltered, and has a better view.

The inside of the cave:


The view from past the cave (the cave is behind the bushes on the left):


You walk past Pillar Cave, the path then crosses the river just above yoyo pool and yoyo falls, the path then walks past some bushes and the turnoff is on your right.

This past weekend I decided to take my 7yr old son, his friend and his friends dad to pillar cave for a night, my son has been on and on at me for about 2 years to spend a night in the cave. So on Friday we packed the car and headed for Garden Castle, the plan was to spend Friday night at the Garden Castle campsite and then hike to Pillar Cave on Saturday and spend the day around the cave exploring and stay the night in the cave.
We arrived to glorious weather on Friday, quite hard to believe it was mid winter in the berg,so after setting up camp for Friday afternoon Scott and I got out a few cold beers and let the boys wonder around and explore. Friday night was fairly chilly but not to bad and I could see Scott and his son had had a restless night, worried that they'd be too cold in the cave Saturday night I made the suggestion to him that once at the cave if we feel it will be too cold then we could always come back to the campsite and spend the night in the tent again, the boys were having none of it and my 7yr old preceded to tell me to "man up"
We left the campsite around 9:30 on Saturday morning after a good breakfast and headed to pillar





As you can see from the backpack, when you taking kids our inexperienced people along you have to take all and sundry, I don't think on any of my escarpment hikes has my pack been that heavy,




My son and Scott walking along the path.

Took us about 2hours to get to the cave with a 15min lunch stop, I was really impressed with both boys, they never moaned once.
Once we reached the cave we then chilled for a bit while the boys adventured around (within our sights of course). The litter in pillar cave was terrible, we found tissues, sweet wrapper and even a beer bottle.
We then took the boys down to pillar cave annex
Obviously my son has decided our next cave trip is to annex




Needless to say the boys and adults had a good weekend, the temp Saturday night seemed to be about 2 or 3 degrees warmer than Friday night at the campsite.

Really glad my son has the same love for the Berg as I do (well for now anyway)
It's amazing how such a small basic weekend for me was an amazing adventure for my son and his friend.

Fitness wrote: the boys were having none of it and my 7yr old preceded to tell me to "man up"

Classic

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing