Nakilango Cave

Michael Laumanns - 23/11/2015

Passing the tree trunks one reaches an entrance chamber that continues straight ahead to the NW into narrow fissures with a small daylight hole. The maze of fissures connect to a meandering river passage that crosses on a lower level from E to W under the entrance chamber. To the E this passage is low and it is filled with nearly stagnant and muddy water and sumps after about 30 m in an area with bad air (supposedly carbon dioxide from rotten organic substances). To the W the river passage is well proportioned and leads a small rivulet to a waterfilled rift passage, which has Some sharp turns. Finally, the river passage widens into a chamber directed E-W and sumps at the SW end of this room. The cave has an overall length of 268 m and is most likely hydrologically connected with Likolongomba, Calcitic formations are absent. A small bat colony lives in Nakilango Cave. The cave fauna is rich due to the accumulation of wood and other organic substances inside the cave. Sheat-fish that survive the several month long dry season inside Nakilango Cave are abundant in the pools of the waterfilled section of the cave.