Billy Cave

On Saturday I headed up what I think is twins top, the “peak" between Christmas pass and Mlambonja pass. At about mid-way I saw a gap in the top rock band and decided to head down it to join the path that comes around the front of the escarpment between Twins and Easter Caves.

As I started to descend I noticed a nice cave that just under the top rock band, looks like it has been used as there is a bit of a wall but there is largely still grass on the floor and looked to be a very nice alternative to Easter Cave, it has a spectacular view of the bell traverse and I certain think that I will aim to spend a night there instead of Easter when we next get to the area.

The cave is fairly easy to find. You can get to it from the escarpment, or from that path around the front of the escarpment between Twins and Easter Caves, but would need to cut up to get to it.

Question – I haven’t seen any write up on this cave, have I missed this somewhere, what is its name?

Below is my GPS track from Garmin and I have circled where the cave is.

I have stayed in this cave several times, but way back in the 1970's when Fran Godbold was hiking in the Berg. She knew of its location from her father. We used to call it Easter Cave before the current Easter Cave became well known. It certainly has the most spectacular outlook of any cave in the Berg. Back then the road to Mweni was almost impassible so the regular route was to walk from Cathedral. This little cave was the first stop en route from the Cathedral Hotel car park. We were young and strong back then. The directions were: Just turn right at the top of Mlambonja Pass. Somebody should give it a decent name.

Hi there. How many people can Billy Cave accommodate?

Hi All

Whether the Cave I mentioned in 2020 is Billy Cave or not I really cannot advise, however we spent the night at the cave in question on Friday night, so I have more info around it and exact locations, maybe this will assist in clarifying this.

Attached is the GPX location (if someone could please assist with adding it to the cave locations list as well, there is also a GPX file with cave locations, if someone can assist with adding it to that)

Here is a look at the location off base camp, I have added a waypoint for the best approach to the cave from the escarpment, there is a descent from the waypoint on the escarpment on a grass slope that is required.

In terms of the Cave, we had a great night there, it is a fantastic view and great to stay in a cave other than Easter or Twins, and we had fantastic vulture sightings first thing in the morning as the vultures were heading out.

This is the view from the cave, note there is a reasonable drop-off, given that it is on the front of the escarpment, but there is enough space however to move around where it is nice and flat.



This is a view of the cave from the slope we used to get to it, just north of the cave, person is picture is where the cave is.



Then this is a look at the cave, it isn't a massive overhang, so a bit exposed if there is bad weather, but we had a clear night with minimal wind and it was perfect.



As you can see there is grass on the cave floor, with a main sleeping area I'm guessing 4 people (weather dependant), we initially set the three of us up in a row in the main sleeping area, but soon realised that that was going to be limited to two because of a drip, and Roy just found a dry spot just to the right of the main sleeping area. So time of year is going to determine how many you can sleep dry in this cave, I would say currently max 4 in summer, but there is lots of room to move other rocks etc around if someone is willing to spend the time setting up the cave nicely, as you can see someone spent sometime setting up a small wall. From the above pic you can get a idea of the space under the overhand, and there is room to rearrange things.