Region: Otter Trail

Otter Trail Caves

Guano Cave

The Guano Cave on the first day of the Otter Trail is familiar to hikers in the area, but as far as we could tell, had never been surveyed. The entrance to the cave is very impressive, as it is nearly 10m wide, and 12m high. The passage is an almost straight line formed by the removal of a shale band between two sandstone beds. Remnants of the shale can be seen in the ceiling along most of the length of the cave. One especially large piece of shale can be seen hanging from the ceiling towards the back of the cave.

The passage narrows rapidly, but continues into the mountain for about 130m. Right at the end of the cave, seepage water has mixed with clay and bat guano to form a thick sludge, well over a metre deep, and about 12m long.

On the far side of the cess pool, the cave terminates after less than 10m. The paw prints in the mud proved that otters Aonyx capensis are cave explorers too, and have been right to the end of the cave. We also found about ten Rhinolophus and a few Miniopterus roosting in the cave. All of the bats were roosting individually, and not in clusters. This was during April.