On our way home from our short stay in De Kelders, Tony and I walked down the steps to the entrace of the drip cave (“drupkelder”), a cave on the shore which has a large freshwater river running through it that supplies the town of Gansbaai with fresh water. We weren’t able to go inside (it was by appointment and I think the person with the key was at the shopping mall).
The cliffs at De Kelders are riddled with caves, but this one is apparently quite unique because of the freshwater river inside it. It also contains beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites. It was visited by Lady Anne Barnard in 1798, and has recently (date uncertain) been threatened by a property development (which may or may not be the fairly unsightly building that currently stands on the land above the cave). I was interested to see in the article about the property development that there was concern that the whales would be chased away from the coast by the bright lights from such a large building.
The concrete structures around the entrance to the cave are related to its use as the water supply for Gansbaai, while the wooden poles are part of a restaurant facility that the owners of the land planned to erect. Probably better that they didn’t.
