Drakensberg Caves GPS Co-ordinates

Smurf they are both in the left of the Mzimkhulu river valley. Not sure of altitude though, I will definatley get you coordinates when I go in July

Hi All.

On a similar note, is there an accurate place to download topography maps for GPS devices?

Its pretty helpful when ontop coming down, for location of the top of the passes.

www.gmaptool.eu/en/content/africa-south-osm-topo-routable

Try here, bottom of the page has links for different devices. Hope this helps

Hy, thks for this very useful list and coords. !one little question
I noticed some difference between your coordinates and those from www.berg.co.za for a same cave. The later are under WGS84. The coordinates hereupper are they under WGS84 too?
Why the differences ? I guess yours are acurate.

How far out are they?

Anything within 50m should be close enough. Otherwise there are a few reasons why a co-ord may differ:
- Caves are generally in cliff bands, and GPS devices aren't that accurate when you are near cliffs
- Some caves are large, so a co-ord at the top vs bottom will be different
- Some people tag a cave when they are near it, others right in the entrance

I have the VE co-ords track loaded on my GPS and have used it many times, I am yet to have had a problem with it.

Right, I though yours VE are liable.
For exemple ICIDI CAVE
(C Sommer GPS Coordinates: WGS 84
S28 48.473 E28 55.947 at 3 097 metres
(VE coordinates )
S28 48.311 E28 56.046 at 3172 m

It is noteworthy that the track in question is also C Sommer's (i.e. Intrepid), so I imagine they are on a different datum. Not sure about the altitude difference though.

Based on Google Earth, the second co-ordinate looks right. Icidi Cave is in a cliff line on the peak known as "Icidi Crown" (not named on the map). It is quite high up.

I find the info on berg.co.za to be very reliable, but haven't ever checked out their GPS co-ords, and rarely use their GPS tracks (the VE ones usually include more points). I have no doubt that there could be errors on the site (and VE too), after all, it is run by a human! I will send Dave (whose website it is) an email about this cave so that he can correct it, if you find any other differences, please let me know

Ghaz, I noticed VE Didima Cave S29 04.418 E29 15.207 3185m
www.berg.co.za Didima S29 04.439 E29 15.253 3200m

Seems about 90m on GE