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.