Oread Halls

Date: 19 December 2008

Present: GD, EP

After some basic organisational blunders involving JW’s lack of courage in leading us through Robin Hood, I decided that there was no way I was not going spelunking and so resorted to my trusted and knowledgeable source of all things good and accurate, Google, for some input.

There is no walk-through of Robin Hood Cave on the internet that I could find (and trust me, I looked!). I did come across a very nice website that described another cave in Silvermine called Oread Halls. The website is: www.darklife.co.za

Oread Halls is apparently the 3^rd largest cave system in Silvermine and so, confident that the map and walk-through was accurate, I asked who wanted to join me and only GD came back with a “yes”. Our adventure was on!

We met at the usual parking lot at 09h30 and started our walk up to Cave Peak. We traversed the Bull Nose rather than taking the normal route up to the Amphitheatre, no real reason, we just like that route.

We only saw two other people with their dogs on the way up, probably because of the low cloud covering the mountain. In our opinion, this just made the conditions better and it was a cool walk up to cave peak. As soon as I got some cell-phone reception, I sent an SMS to AM to tell him our plans and, if we weren’t out by a certain time, to contact mountain rescue (you can never be too careful).

Following the directions off the website, we reached the summit of Cave Peak and followed the path to the caves. We reached a T-junction and had to guess where to go. It was noted that SAN Parks has added some signage to Cave Peak pointing out the route to Devil’s Pit and Boomslang Cave – thanks. The directions told us to follow the path past Devil’s Pit and then take the left fork about 100m after it, so naturally we decided to do our own thing and ended up on the wrong side of the peak searching for the entrance. After a while we decided to retrace our steps and follow the path instead. We came across a cave entrance but, not knowing which cave it was, decided to follow the directions a little more closely and walked back along the path and down to Devil’s Pit. Just as the directions stated, about 100m after Devil’s Pit there was a path to the left. We followed this and came to the Oread Halls entrance. I arrived first and had a feeling of déjà-vu which was confirmed when GD came around the corner and pointed out that this was the same cave we had stood at earlier! There was no signage stating that this was the right spot, but we decided to go in anyway.

With laminated map of the cave system in hand and walk-through instructions in pocket, we donned our protective gear (some skateboarding knee and elbow pads and some gym gloves) and, just before we began to climb down the hole into the cave, GD discovered that he had forgotten his torch! Luckily I had a wind-up type spare (not very bright and not able to be head mounted or anything – but it would do) and we began our descent.

It is a very easy descent into the cave (only a few meters) but a bit tight if you are more rounded than most I would assume.

Upon reaching the floor and stashing our packs in the corner, we started having a look around what is known as Annies Hall, a wide open chamber. The cave floor is covered in a very clean river sand and the roof of the cave was coated in a very fine dew which, at first glance, made us think the rock was full of fool’s gold.

This thought lasted until we touched the roof and found it to be wet instead.

We didn’t hang around here for a long time and decided to continue through to the Skylight Chamber.

The route through the cave soon becomes quite constricted and you really need to get down on your belly and leopard crawl through a tight 90° bend.

The route becomes a bit higher and the rest was able to be done on our hands and knees. At one point you come around the corner and a lot of roots appear on your left. We got quite a fright and spent a short while looking closely at these as they had the same colouring as a puff adder – not our favourite friend. We carried on though but I kept a close eye on them for any movement.

Eventually, light could be seen up ahead, marking the Skylight Chamber and this opened up into a high cavern ±12m high with a hole at the top which lets the sunlight in. In this chamber we found the original markings made by the explorers as well as a lot of other name and date markings which can only be classified as graffiti.

After spending some time there, we decided to move along to the Grand Hall via the path to the right of the Skylight Chamber.

The water has cut a furrow into the sand about 20cm deep in some places which made progress easier as we only had to hunch down while standing in it until we reached the Grand Hall.

The Grand Hall is a decent size opening high enough to stand and the walls are once again covered in lots of graffiti.

We spent some time admiring the rocks on the far end of the hall (you can go further but it is not recommended) and noting the clay bands in the rocks. Most of the graffiti here was written in clay so at least could be wiped off if needed. It is quite damp so the clay does not seem to dry out rapidly.

It was at this point that we decided to switch off the torches and simply stand in silence and listen to the noises within the cave around us. With absolutely no light here you can see nothing and cannot even register a slightly darker patch as you move your hand closer to your face. The dripping of the water is quite a mesmerising sound but a little freaky in the absolute darkness.

After hanging around for a while, we decided to make our way back the same way we had come. For some reason there were a lot of small grass-hoppers in the cave. We must have somehow disturbed them on our way in. We passed the roots that looked like puffies (once again pausing to have another check for movement) and squirmed our way back through to the entrance. I left a copy of the map and directions just below the entrance in a jiffy bag that was there containing some matches (I also replaced the matches as they had gone a bit soggy) for the next bunch and if we ever return.

Once out of the cave, we spent some time dusting ourselves off (GD’s shirt was still white which shows how clean the sand down there is) and packing all the gear away. I sent an SMS to AM to tell him we were out safe. We headed back over the top of Cave Peak and to the Amphitheatre and took the main route back down to the road. We saw only one other person on the way back to the car, a chap carrying a boulder mattress on his back, and upon arriving back at the cars realised he was probably the only other person around.

Once at the car, we took off our packs, dumped them in the boots and said our good-byes.