Sinclair’s Cave, Kamberg Valley
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” – William Shakespeare
Hike Leader Dusty Shaw, Author and photos Dusty Shaw
David and Robert Hockley joined Melanie and me on this hike to Sinclair’s cave to overnight. The cave is situated on the lower end of the Kamberg valley overlooking the uMkhomazi KZN conservancy promising a wide view of the Drakensberg Mountains.
Our first stop was at the water fall where once a year the Sangomas (spiritual healers) come and stand in the waterfall to be imbued by the spirits in the rituals they will be performing in the forthcoming year (pic 2). Closer inspection of the wall reveals some bushman paintings (pic 3)
A little bit further on we broke away from the main trail that continues up to Game Pass Shelter towards our first challenge “the mountain”, stopping for a breather and filling up bottles of water as we weren’t sure how much water would be available on the top (pic 4 left). After studying which way would be the best approach we headed off and slowly made our way up. Luckily the grass was burnt and we could use the nodules of grass as steps (pic 5 right)
Looking back (pic 6) we could see whence we came from and relieved the worst was over
As we continued along the plateau we noticed all the white flowers growing in the fire break, these were identified as Indwa (Zulu name) which bloom after fires as well as yellow fire lily (pic 7 & 8)
We were also lucky to see many species of antelope such as eland, grey rhebuck, bless buck and oribi which were all very skittish and difficult to get a good photo as well as baboon (pic 9)
Approaching the cave (pic 10) we were quiet apprehensive to the water situation and quality as it was just trickling over the front of the cave but we managed to find a pool not too far to replenish our water bottles and for cooking. We quickly unpacked in our selected bedding enclosures (pic 11) cut some grass to insulate ourselves off the ground and did a rekie around the cave.
After a good dinner and chin wag we climbed into our sleeping bags with a cold wind blowing through the cave which the rock barriers managed to give some protection.
During the night we heard Jackal crying in the wind as some of us did our own noisy snoring in answer.
The morning brought some warmth back, after breakfast we started to pack up and make our way back to the knee trembling downhill which we very slowly navigated our way down being careful not to slip or send a rock tumbling down on someone below you (pic 12)
In summary it was a great outing once again, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and plans of new wild camping ideas discussed for the next exciting trip into the Drakensberg.