Overview

The South African Spelaeological Association (SASA) was the country’s first national body for organised caving. Founded in the early 1950s, it brought a scientific and systematic approach to cave exploration at a time when most caving in South Africa was informal. Its members carried out the first proper surveys of many of the Kalk Bay caves, published a bulletin recording their discoveries, and trained a generation of cavers who went on to establish the later regional clubs.

The British spelling Spelaeological — retaining the classical digraph ae — is used throughout, in keeping with SASA’s own usage and the broader tradition of the discipline.

Founding and early work

SASA was formed in the early 1950s, shortly after the death of Johan Meyer in 1952. Where Meyer’s era had been characterised by informal exploration and a love of the mountain for its own sake, SASA’s members brought a more methodical approach: drawing up surveys, examining cave fauna, and recording their findings in a regular bulletin.

The Association’s membership overlapped significantly with the mountain-walking and climbing community. Phil Hitchcock, one of Meyer’s original Moles, remained active in the early SASA period and helped to bridge the two eras.

Major discoveries

Ronan’s Well breakthrough (1957–1958)

SASA’s most celebrated discovery was the extension of Ronan’s Well. At the time, the cave was known to extend about 75 yards from its entrance. In 1957, a member pushed through a narrow constriction at the end of the known cave and found it opened into a large passage leading to several chambers. When the extended cave was surveyed, its length had grown to approximately 1,200 feet — one of the longest cave systems on the Cape Peninsula. The breakthrough was reported by Anthony Keen in the SASA Bulletin (Vol. 3, No. 2, 1958, pp. 25–30).

The discovery also prompted a search for a second entrance. Although Drip Water Pot was found during this search, the second entrance to Ronan’s Well itself remained elusive for nearly another decade.

Robin Hood’s Cavern connection (1967–1969)

In 1967 a SASA team used a magnetic field generator placed near the end of Ronan’s Well, and a detector on the surface, to determine that Robin Hood’s Cavern lay very close to the inner parts of Ronan’s Well. Two digging teams cleared sand and boulders until, in 1969, the two systems were connected. Frank Coley’s account of the operation appeared in the SASA Bulletin under the title Speleo (1969), the only year the bulletin was published under that name.

The new entrance through Robin Hood’s Cavern was considerably easier to negotiate than the original entrance, and as a result substantially increased the number of visitors to Ronan’s Well.

The SASA Bulletin

SASA published a regular bulletin recording cave surveys, exploration reports, and scientific notes. Key survey papers published in the bulletin include:

• Larkin, G.L. Echo Halt; Devil’s Pit; Boomslang Cave; Oread Halls. SASA Bulletin, Vol. 23, 1982.
• Eckles, D. and Hitchcock, A.N. “Recent work above Kalk Bay and Muizenberg.” SASA Bulletin, 1979/1980. (Oread Halls, Avernus Cave, Labyrinth, Ystervark Grot.)
• Kavalieris, I. “The Formation of Ronan’s Well Cave.” SASA Bulletin, 1977.
• Hitchcock, A.N. “Labyrinth and Kliphuis Revisited.” SASA Bulletin, 1984.
• Hitchcock, A.N. “The Vivarium.” SASA Bulletin, 1984.
• Martini, J. “The Rate of Quartz Dissolution and Weathering.” SASA Bulletin, 1984.
• Martini, J. “The Quartzite Caves of Berlin.” SASA Bulletin, 1978.
• Keen, Anthony. “Ronan’s Well Extensions.” SASA Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1958.

The systematic survey (1983–)

In the early 1980s, Anthony Hitchcock and Christopher Larkin began a project to survey all the known caves on the Kalk Bay mountain systematically. Peter Swart joined the project in 1983. Due to the number of caves and the time available, the project continued over many years. The surveys produced during this period, along with the photographic and descriptive records accumulated alongside them, form the foundation of the cave archive that is presented on this site.

Legacy

SASA’s scientific approach to caving — formal surveys, published reports, an organised bulletin — established the template for caving in South Africa. The surveys it published, and the culture of documentation it promoted, made possible the long-term cave record that now exists for the Kalk Bay mountains.

Many of SASA’s members and associates went on to found or lead the regional clubs that succeeded it, including the Cape Peninsula Spelaeological Society.