Ngunde Cave

Michael Laumanns - 23/11/2015

Although the entrance is a high open vertical rift it cannot be seen from the Mnubi river. It is thought that Ngunde is identical with Nakilago” mentioned by Thurmann (1911). From the lower entrance the main passage of Ngunde leads straight from NW to SE and has smaller parallel side tubes that connect to the main passage where crossings with a subordinate cleft system (W-E) are present. The main passage has nice dripstone formations 50 m from the lower entrance. From here, the passage opens to about 10-15 m width and up to 8 m height. A medium size bat colony roosts where the collector turns to the W. Several solutional chimneys in the roof are present. One of them reaches the daylight. Just 40 m further one can exit the upper entrance of Ngunde cave that leads into a dry valley. During the wet season the valley certainly carries water that uses the cave’s main passage to flow to the Mnubi valley. From the upper entrance of Ngunde Cave a subsidiary network of rift passages leads to the SE. The small maze reconnects to the place where the main gallery turns to the west. Another branch of this series leads further towards SE to a daylight collapse. A subsequent collapse hole can be seen through an impenetrable fissure and it may be possible that the cave continues from this point. However, both daylight holes could not be found by us in the thicket on the surface in order to continue exploration. Ngunde Cave contains exploitable bat guano accumulations.