Aboulia Grotto
Length: 136m | Surveyed: 1995-06-06
Peter Swart, 31 Jan 1993, updated: 26 Mar 2026
noun — Psychiatry
noun: aboulia
loss or impairment of the ability to initiate actions or make decisions, as a symptom of mental illness.
After surveying the cave, and not finding an earlier reference to the cave name (we did not look very hard) we were not able to decide on a name. Anthony open a dictionary, and started reading. Very soon he came across the word aboulia, and the cave had its name.
Description
The cave has a passage running parallel to the outside cliff with either three or four openings to the surface. There are about 15m of passage between the opening on either end. In about the middle of the cave, a passage ran into the mountain for about 10m before turing to the right (almost parallel with the main passage). The passage is about 8m long, and varies from 1m to 30cm wide. On the first exploration, I did not reach the end of the passage, so it may well be longer than the above description. There were a number of porcupine quills in this passage. At the north end of the cave, (opposite ent 4) a narrow passage goes into the mountain, and turns left. The passage became too narrow after about 3m and a stream flows out of this passage in winter, flooding the main passage.
On my last winter visit to the cave, there was 30cm deep pool of water starting in the main passage and curving around into the sun-lit entrances of the cave. There were lots of flatworms in the water and many cave crickets and a few bristletails in the cave.
On leaving the cave we found a passage around the corner which may meet up with the bigger cave. I labeled in ent 5 in the above diagram.
Survey
Survey — Aboulia Grotto — click image to open PDF