Garden Route Adventure Tours in South Africa

Rates are valid from 1 July 2009 - 30 June 2010
The adventure tour has the same starting point as the
standard tour, but continues to lead deeper into the cave. At the end of the Standard tour you will descend to where the 30 minutes of adventure starts....

From this point the tour becomes progressively more difficult. JACOB'S LADDER, with its over 2OO steps, leads through THE GRAND HALL into THE AVENUE, and then the low confines of LUMBAGO ALLEY.

Towards the end of the Grand Hall you will pass LOT'S CHAMBER, where a group of stalagmites represent the biblical Lot, his two daughters, and his wife, who turned into a pillar of salt. Alongside the viewing platform is another hollowed-out stalagmite known as King Arthur's Throne.

Beyond THE AVENUE you enter LUMBAGO ALLEY. It is 85 metres long. For the most part the roof is low and for 28 metres of the Lumbago Walk the roof height seldom exceeds 1,2 metres.
Emerging from this tunnel you can glimpse delicate roof crystals and get to view some of the lovely smaller grottos.

The roof of the Crystal Palace is decorated with "Hanging crystal gardens", adorned with ice-like crystals and weirdly contorted helictites. A light to the left reveals a translucent crystal wall.
Moving on to the next chamber, you pass an active candle-wax column in delicate golden hues.

Steps lead downwards into the cellar-like chambers of KING SOLOMON'S MINES. The cavern gets its name from a formation high up near the roof, resembling a rotund king with a bearded face, wearing a crystal crown. His throne is mounted on an inverted Protea, South Africa's national flower.

Alongside the throne, much to the children's delight, hangs a gigantic ice-cream cone. The roof of this chamber is decorated with a fantasy of amazing helictites.

An iron ladder ascends from King Solomon's Mines into the unique caving adventure of The Devil's Chimney section. First you have to crawl through THE TUNNEL OF LOVE, a low passageway some 74 centimetres high, narrowing at one point to about 3O centimetres, where stouter cavers are apt to receive a loving squeeze!
This tunnel brings you to THE ICE CHAMBER, with its fascinating shelfstone ledge high around the outer wall. This ledge indicates the level of a cave pool from a bygone age. The pool's level ultimately subsided, leaving only a shallow pool in the cavern today.

Next comes THE COFFIN, a hexagonally-shaped hole in the shelfstone, which is the beginning and end of the final circular route. The cave opens out again as we pass through the ICE-CREAM PARLOUR into the colourful beauty of the DEVIL'S WORKSHOP. The brilliantly-coloured ceiling is decorated with many delicate helictites.

The way ahead leads over a steep hump, which leads you into the DEVIL'S KITCHEN, with its notorious DEVIL'S CHIMNEY. The guide points to a narrow crack in the wall - surely someone's idea of a joke! But no, this is the DEVIL'S CHIMNEY. Peering in you see a steep shaft about 45 centimetres wide which leads upwards for some 3,5 metres. There is a light at the top. Amidst an assortment of grunts, groans and, usually, hysterical laughter you squirm through the chimney into another larger chamber, only to be confronted by an even smaller opening.

Using 'Leopard Crawl' to wriggle forward you approach a low, wide slot - the only exit route. It is only 27 centimetres high.
Some guides recommend a head-first 'posting', which may be likened to a rebirth experience, as one emerges infant-like from the narrow crevice. The alternative of feet-first results in an easy slide (depending on girth or chest-size) down the smooth, sloping wall and being deposited on the flowstone floor below. You have now reached the furthest point of the tour.

A short scramble leads you back to the Coffin, through the Ice Chamber and Tunnel of Love and back down the iron ladder into King Solomon's Mines and back along the previous route, emerging into the welcome light of day at the cave entrance.