Rolands Cave

Hi BOTShane,

It's not too hard to find, just stick to the valley between Organ Pipes pass on your left, and Ndumeni dome on your right. Stay below the rockbands till right at the end. If you go through the rockbands you will end up too high, but then you have the two upper Ndumeni caves as possible shelter to consider. Both are at the base of the top rock band, about 300m or so apart. Even in really thick mist it would be difficult not to find these.

For Rolands, just keep in the 'valley" and you will soon start noticing lots of cairns, about every 50m or so, but relatively small ones (30cm high). As you go upwards (south) you will eventually get to the point where Organ Pipes pass and Ndumeni dome converge, and here you will climb a bit upwards through the rockband if my memory serves me right. For me, this is the tricky section as the cairns dissapear and it looks like you are about to fall off the edge, with seemingly nowhere to go. Just keep walking forward, you should see a faint path appearing, and about 20m onwards is Rolands cave.

If you don't succeed in finding the cave, use either of the Upper Ndumeni dome caves or pitch your tent at the top of Organ Pipes pass.

Enjoy, hope you guys find it 

Hey guys just wanted to give an update, my group didn't make it to Roland's on the first night, after we got to the top of camels pass we decided that was enough hiking and set up. Made a mission to Roland's the next morning to check it out, then went back down camels to ribbon falls. Was a beautiful hike and we had the best time. Thank you all for the information and support really appreciate it. 

Hi all,

We've just been to Rolands over New Years... and it was absolutely STUNNING.

Here is the correct location on GMAPS: https://maps.google.com?q=-29.0140283,29.1884302&hl=en-DE&gl=de

And here is a great water source (a running river) about 850m away: https://maps.google.com?q=-29.0122603,29.1800194&hl=en-DE&gl=de

We also put new cairns to mark the way. It was quite a mission to find in the mist, but we made it and got blessed with the most incredible sunrise.



Enjoy and THANK YOU for all the descriptions here. Really helped us along!

Happy 20plenty!

Hi All,Just a note: We did Camel Pass from Cathedral Peak up to the escarpment this past weekend, with the idea of sleeping in Roland's Cave. As I took along a number of young (inexperienced) men/boys, I brought a rope to fasten to the anchors around the dodgy bit to get to the cave entrance. I haven't been to the cave for a number of years. When we arrived there (in mild rain ), I realized the bolt and hanger had been removed or had gotten lost. Does anybody know if this is a recent issue or if it has been like that for a while? Given the wet conditions, and that these were other people's children, I decided to rather pull out the tents and camp lower down. So for anybody planning a similar trip, just note that the bolt and hanger are missing; prepare accordingly by either not being able to secure using a rope, or take along a bolt and a hanger (and of course know how to fix these correctly – not sure what the berg etiquette is related to placing fixed gear in instances like this). 

Thanks
Leon

Does anybody perhaps have a picture or two of where the attachement point on both sides are? I've used it once, years before, but never since. I've looked for them but didn't see them a couple of times after that. Put it down to simply concentrating more on my foot placement than looking for the pittons, but maybe they've been gone for a while then?

The first bolt furthest from the cave has been broken for a while now. There is a pitton hidden in a bush just a little away from it that I usually use. Then the bolt closest to the cave entrance is still there 

Not sure if you could tell by this video where the pitton is but yeah. The bolt closest to the cave is really obvious so you wouldn’t miss that one at all.

Hi PatrikClimbs,

No video attached that I could see

It is 4 years ago that I was in Rolands Cave. It was a misty wet day so we attached a piece of string to the bolts and moved around. Just that thin string made us feel so much more comfortable. Both bolts still looked in good nic so not sure how they could break. Here is a pic of us going around there, the red circle shows where the first bolt is, just hidden away 

 

We were in Rolands on the 1st of Jan 2026. This is the bolt closest to the cave. The one further away from the cave still looks in good condition, but didn't get a photo of that one.