Earth's oldest caves & power troubles

After 2 weeks in South Africa, we had seen its largest city, the bits they want you to see, and some bits that they don't, we had experienced the thrill and intensity of a Safari and been fortunate enough to see all the animals that we had hoped to. We had spent a few days exploring the beautiful landscapes of the Panorama Route and we had driven through landscapes with only goats and cows wandering by the side of the road for miles.

Simply by travelling through this country for a couple of weeks, we had seen a lot of the remote, rural South Africa; the small villages and towns with makeshift homes and makeshift main streets usually bustling with people. The homes erected from tree branches, corrugated metal sheets and fabric; the shops and small businesses, equally rustic and in need of modernisation, but at least looking a little more permanent. The poverty is clear to see. The imbalance of wealth is clear to see, and difficult to process. In every established town with some sort of infrastructure, there is an area for people who have very little, and then there is an area for people with a little more wealth. Inevitably, the hostels, hotels and guest houses that we have been staying in are in the latter. It feels uncomfortable to drive through the poorer area and leave it behind us. It plays on your mind and makes you contemplate the unfairness of social constructs. I had the same thoughts as we travelled through Morocco and Senegal - probably more so in Senegal truthfully.

We hadn't yet seen the coast, and craving the ocean we headed South.

To break up the drive from Graskop to the South coast, we decided to take a minor detour to explore the Sudwala Caves. It's a little nerdy I guess, but we both like to visit cave systems, but for largely different reasons. I love how as soon as you go in, the air becomes cold and the darkness can be completely consuming. Gaz likes the science of it all, the mineral formations etc... I do get that, but I love seeing the shapes and colours of them more than the science.

Sudwala Caves are a big deal though. When I read up about them I was really suprised that I hadn't heard of them before. They are the oldest known cave system in the world! I thought it could just be some local tourist waffle, but I checked and the cave system is recognised by the Guiness World Records as being the oldest. Crazy that it doesn't seem to really be on the tourist trail here. I simply found it by scouring across Google Maps looking for things that might be worth seeing.

The rock that the caves are formed from, is nearly 3000 Million years old! The rock formed in sedimentary layers at the base of a warm shallow sea. Then 240 Million years ago, the caves began to form through natural acid erosion of the soft dolomite rock.

With a guide we explored the first 600m of the cave system, with the largest chamber (known as the ampitheatre) reaching a height of 37m. It was incredible. We've seen stalactites and stalacmites before, but these were huge, and some were columns reaching from the roof of the cave to the floor, where the stalactite and stalacmite had joined together and continued to grow. The oldest and biggest of these mineral formations we saw was over 200 million years old and still growing!

So much fascinating history to these caves, not just the geology, but also how they have been used to shelter humans and their livestock even as recently as 1800s. Really enjoyed our time here, so would absolutely recommend.

We then made our way South, and ended our first day's drive at a place called Ermelo. In truth it's a fairly nondescript place, but i had booked for us to stay in a self-catering guest house style single level house. It was cheap (probably because the town is not really a place you would holiday) but beautifully decorated and really comfortable. It was here however that the reality of Loadshedding really became clear.

When we were camping at Blyde River Dam, we had unpredictable loadshedding times and it was really frustrating to go without power for an extra hour or two, but that was for a couple of days while we were camping in the middle of the relative wilderness, so you just get on with it. But in Ermelo, we were in a major town, in modern housing etc... and having to put up with loadshedding times that didn't correspond with the planned outages really opened our eyes to the challenges that people live with every day here.

We were in a supermarket, in the mall, when the power went off. The whole supermarket went pitch black, you couldn't see people around you let alone continue shopping. People simply stood still and waiting for the power to come back on - which it did after a false start a minute later. But people in the queue for the tills had an extended wait while the payment system reset, before finally being able to complete their payment. Supermarkets and other established businesses tend to have a backup power source (usually a generator) so they can operate during loadshedding.

When we got back to our accommodation the power was still off as expected, but at 7.30pm the power was due to return. It didn't. I checked the loadshedding website on my phone and saw thet there was a delay to the power returning - another 2 hours. At this time of year, the sun goes down at 6pm, so it gets dark early, and apart from a single battery powered lamp, we had no light at all. And that's what people have to cope with - they use battery powered lamps and candles, or simply exist in the dark. We couldn't boil the kettle for a cuppa for 4.5hrs that day!

It's the simple things you notice - I put some laundry in the washing machine, and before it had completed, the power went out. And then I had to wait for 4.5hrs before the power came back. And when it did, the sun had gone down, so I had no way of drying the clothes. When your laptop or mobile (or even backup portable charger) runs out of charge, you simply have to wait for the power to come back before you can charge it.

So people end up sat in the dark, some unable to boil a kettle, or use their devices. What do they do? Watch TV? nope. Play some music? nope. Use the Wi-Fi? nope.

It's the unpredictability of the outages that are the issue. If the loadshedding was reliable, you would get used to it, but it's really not.

We are here during springtime, and the weather so far has been around 22 - 26C most of the time. The few days leading up to this had been much hotter and the day we arrived it had been 37C. The next day however we woke and the whole house was freezing. We had unfortunately left a window open and the temperature dropped to -1C overnight!! That morning, the temp didn't get above 9C and it didn't get warmer that 17C all day. How can it vary that much? It's mad that it can change by 20 or more in a day.

I'm starting to realise that we may not have packed the right clothes for the adventure around this country!

We rigged up the travel washing line in the garden, from the barbeque to the back gate and hung out the clothes overnight. Some things dried by the time we packed up to leave the next day, and some things didn't. We simply packed them damp and then dried them out at the next place.

----------------------------------

If you decide to go to Sudwala Caves:

Access the caves from Sudwala Lodge. Drive into the Lodge grounds, drive past the lodge and follow the small road for 2km winding up the mountain. Eventually you'll get to a car park. Tip: avoid a lot of unnecessary steps by driving on to the separate upper car park. Parking is FREE.

The basic cave tour was 110ZAR per adult (c.£4.50) and for a 45 minute guided explore of the main caverns, it was definitely worth it.

2 sections of the cave are more challenging for people who struggle with stairs or who may be unstable on their feet, but those sections are entirely optional and the rest of the tour is absolutely worth seeing.

Outside of the cave system itself there are a couple of places your can get something to eat or drink; either up at the caves or down by the lodge.