Groot Rivier Guano Cave
Region: Groot River Mouth (Eastern end of TNP)
Groot River Mouth (Eastern end of TNP)
Groot Rivier Guano Cave – 53m
The main objective of the meet was to find the guano cave at the eastern
end of the National Park. We found an old forestry map in the Cape
Archives on which the cave entrance is marked. After a word with the
staff at the National Park, we visited a Mr Peter Kerr, the owner of the
farm above the cave. He kindly gave us permission to cross his land, and
after about 40 minutes walk we found the entrance, less than 100m from
the mouth of the Groot River.
The cave is a large vertical crack, running into the cliff for about
60m. Much of the entrance is blocked by a large wind blown sand dune,
and the overhang is used as a storage area for canoes. The entrance dune
acts as a dam wall, and keeps seepage water in the cave. This water
forms a large pool that stretches for about 40m to the back of the cave.
The pool well is over a metre deep in places.
We borrowed one of the canoes at the entrance and paddled our way to the
end of the cave. Nadine, Anthony and I surveyed the cave. At the end of
the crack there was a colony of about 150 bats. They appeared to be
Rhinolophus and two species of Miniopterus. Some were very small and
dark, while others were slightly larger, and had light brown patches on
them. Anthony went off and explored the river up stream. He found two
small caves on the eastern bank. The first cave was quite small, and not
worth surveying.