Oudsthoorn Day 2- Cango Caves

We were up at 6:30am and I think I had the best nights sleep since we first arrived. I felt refreshed and ready to go but the weather was having other ideas. Even though it was early it was cold, overcast and damp was in the air and there was a chilly breeze.
We got dressed and at 10am we left the camping site and drove 20 miles down the road to Cango Caves. We had already pre booked our tickets for the 11am heritage tour for £10 each. The other option was the adventurer tour taking us deep down into the caves and 2 more subsections via tunnels that you would have to crawl and squeeze through. I wanted to do that tour but Ellie didn’t.
We arrived at the caves at 10:40am, walked to the entrance and then to the cashier who scanned our reservation and told us to go to level 3. The building was very grand and looked quite new and they had lots of big photos and displays all the way up to the third level.
Just as we reached the third level via the winding ascending walkway a tannoy announced that the 11am tour was about to start and we showed our tickets to a lady at the doorway and we headed back outside to the entrance of the cave. The entrance was massive, a giant slit in the face of the rock and we couldn’t wait to start the tour.
As soon as our guide, Crystal, arrived we entered the cave and the first of 5 chambers. It was totally different to other caves we had been in, this place looked like it was melting with all the dripping calcium formations that had formed over the past 80,000 years. There was a huge formation right in the centre they called the organ because it looked like pipes hanging from it.
The second chamber was the biggest of the five and crystal explained they found this chamber 12 years after the first because they could only use oil lamps to find their way around. Then she turned off the lights and all that remained was a single oil lamp light that was already lit. It was an eerie feeling knowing how big the space was but not being able to see it.
The next 3 chambers were smaller but just as impressive as the first 2. All of them looked so surreal as if they had got wet, changed shape and dried out. It really did look like an alien world. One of the best parts of the whole experience was that they encourage you to take photos.Läs mer