On Thursday October 16, 2014 one of the parkrangers of the Christoffel park , Wotty, would show us a cave that he had found in his youth; he himself had nevered entered this cave. So we gathered at the entrance of the Christoffelpark at 8 Am that morning and drove from there to the Shete Boka area. We parked our cars close to Boka Wandomi and Wotty started searching for the entrance of the cave. Later I understood why he had to search; even when you know that there is a cave, the entrance is so small that you easily overlook it. Actually the entrance is so small that not everyone in our group would have fit through it. Fred and I went inside and a bit later also Eddy followed. The others decided to stay outside.
The only way we could safely enter the cave was lying on our back, feet first. As soon as we were through the small opening the cave opened up a bit; there you had a choice to go left or right; Wotty advised us to go left. Strangely enough this cave had a sandy bottom. Probably this cave will fill with seawater when there are high waves (luckily not when we were inside). We didn't find any bats in this cave probably for the same reason.
The cave is mostly undisturbed. There are a lot of small stalactites and these seem to be intact. There is still water dripping from these stalactites and on the bottom there are some stalagmites and dark spots where new stalagmites will form. The cave is considerably larger than we had expected; there are several rooms in the cave. Fred went as far as he safely could go and warned us not to follow because the room between floor and ceiling became less and less.
We stayed a bit more than half an hour inside the cave and took a lot of pictures. When looking at the pictures it looks as if the cave has sufficient light to look around but actually the cave is pitch black. So it was only when looking at the pictures afterwards that I found out that there was a small river flowing through the cave. Not even the entry can be seen when inside the cave so it is very easy to get lost. Luckily part of the group stayed outside and by calling them we were able to determine our direction to the exit. Crawling out of the cave was also not easy but we all made it safely. And probably also everyone before us because, as Fred said, we didn't find any skeletons inside the cave.
Wotty went back to the Christoffel park and we continued to the West. Starting with Boka Wandomi we walked along Boka Kortalein, a nameless boka, Boka Platé and finally Boka Manzaliña. That last bay has a long sandy beach so this would be a perfect place for turtles to breed.
After the walk back to our cars we drove back to the Christoffel park and from there back home. This was a very nice hike; one advice though: don't enter this cave on your own without proper equipment to find your way back out. And if you do, there should always be some people waiting outside in case something goes wrong.
Our track along a number of bocas (bays)
A nice Indju at the parking lot of Savonet
The entrance of Cueba di Wotty
Entrance is very narrow (picture by Fred)
Nowhere is the cave high enough to stand upright
There appears to be a small river in the cave
The ceiling is getting lower
Stalagmites
Stalactites
Fred is going deeper and deeper
John is taking pictures (picture by Fred)
Fred
Eddy
More stalactites
Fred is studying the stalactites
Reasonably comfortable place to sit (picture by Fred)
The dark spots show where new stalagmites are growing
Fred has to crawl to get out of this part of the cave
John (picture by Fred)
Eddy
Where was the exit? Eddy and John are looking for it (picture by Fred)
Shells in the cave; this is a very old one (Melangona)
A small pool
An even smaller pool
Strange looking stalactite
The sleuths and Wotty (left) at the entrance of the cave
Boka Wandomi
The stairs at Boka Wandomi
The natural bridge at Boka Wandomi
The first bay of Boka Kortalein
Lots of Turk's Cap cacti
Multi-headed Turk's Cap cactus
Small flowers
A pile of diabaas
Top of a cactus
The broader bay of Boka Kortalein
This boka continues under the ground
Fred is taking pictures of a nameless bay
Nice shell
Boka Platé
A small boka just before Boka Mazaliña
Boka Manzaliña
A very eroded Kadaster measuring point
Even the copper dot is eroded
This one is in a bit better condition