#SoCS – Caves

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The Sudwala Caves in Mpumalanga, South Africa, are set in Precambrian (the earliest part of Earth’s history) dolomite rock, which was first laid down about 2800 million years ago, when Africa was still part of Gondwana (a super continent that existed 550 million years ago). The caves themselves formed about 240 million years ago.

The Sudwala Caves was used by the Boers (Afrikaans farmers) to store ammunition for their 94-pounder Long Tom guns during the Second Anglo Boer War. There is also a rumour that President Kruger hid the legendary Kruger millions in the cave during his flight from Pretoria to Lourenço Marques during this same war. I came across this interesting information while researching the area and this war for my forthcoming novel, A Ghost and His Gold.

My family visited the Sudwala Caves a few years ago when we did a road trip of this area. The caves are beautifully maintained and have some amazing rock formations. I had only ever visited limestone caves before this one and the dolomite is quite different.

I have included some pictures of the various rock formations we saw below.

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The Screaming Monster formation

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An underground river in the caves

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This post was written for Linda G Hill’s steam of consciousness Saturday prompt. You can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2020/05/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-9-2020/

 

Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

Published

55 thoughts on “#SoCS – Caves”

  2. I kept looking for a bat, but it was just part of the cave. I love pictures of caves, but I don’t like being IN caves. It’s the darkness and the damp and too many bad movies of getting trapped in caves, not to mention real news stories of real people trapped in caves. But the pictures are GREAT.

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    2. Thank you, Marilyn, I am glad you enjoyed this post. There are bats in a part of this cave and there is a business undertaking by some local people to sell their droppings. I didn’t manage to get a picture of the bats as it was to dark to take a decent photograph where they were sleeping.

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  8. I watched a show with some Josh Gates (Expedition Unknown host) and he was in some caves that someone had mapped out, but with the children or child of the person who had made the original maps. The explored some parts that were never seen before – hard to imaging that we could be living with so many empty spaces below us.

    Lovely caves thanks for sharing your photos.

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