Hi there. I fully realise that this forum is about UK caving and not Namibia, but please have mercy on me. I'm a bit desperate to get in touch with cavers, wherever they are, for the following reason. I live in Namibia and have had the good luck to "find" 3 caves which seem never to have been explored. I'd always been interested in caving but never got a chance. So I'm looking for guys who'd be interested in coming here for a trip together and the possibility to be the first to see these caves. No idea how deep they are, if it's worth it, etc... However there are quite a lot of caves here and some, like the "Dragon's breath" are awesome. Those 3 have quite large entrances and give the impression to be worth a visit. Please dear moderator, forgive me this of-topic posting. And give me a chance. Thanks a lot.

Sounds exciting, but how do you know they have never been explored before?

Hello Phalbert, welcome to UK Caving!
These entrances sound very exciting indeed!
Whereabouts in the country are these? Are there any other features of cave formation (rivers that disappear into sinks and re-emerge from springs), or known caves in the area?

Cave exploration doesn't require that much specialist gear at first, just find a friend, a few lights and some kind of hard hat each & go see what you find!

In our country we have a lot of experienced cavers, but not so many caves left to discover. If you can get some photos of the entrances you've discovered somewhere on the internet, I'm sure there will be lots of suggestions of what could be done next.

Ein Herzliche Wilkommen to German South West Africa.  The South Africa Speleo Society were very active in Namibia.  Have a look at their Bulletins. 

Phalbert said:

Hi there. I fully realise that this forum is about UK caving and not Namibia, but please have mercy on me. I'm a bit desperate to get in touch with cavers, wherever they are, for the following reason. I live in Namibia and have had the good luck to "find" 3 caves which seem never to have been explored.

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The Austrian Verein f?r H?hlenkunde in Obersteier, among others, have visited Namibia.
Some info and references in German here.

Hi evrybody. Thanks for your interest. I will check the german sites and see if these caves have been visited without locals noticing. The caves are in 2 places in the Kaokoland, northwestern Namibia. It's mountainous terrain. First one is about 50 km southwest of Opuwo and about 40 mn walk from the next village. The villagers tell me that there have been only 2 europeans who came and only had a look at the entrance, and that was many years ago. They assured me nobody never went inside. There's no way to prove it, but I believe them. The entrance looks quite dangerous because of a steep cone going down and the actual entrance looking like a big dark hole. Locals are very much afraid of any cave. The other 2 caves seem to have a possible link since they are about 3 km apart. They are about 100 km southwest of Opuwo and it takes one day driving very bad tracks, and 2 hours hiking to get to each. I saw one entrance from a viewpoint about 2 km away. Looks quite large, too, but because of time, I couldn't get any closer. The other one is on top of a mountain. I saw it while flying over in a cessna and took a picture. Again, some locals know them but don't care the least, and they assured me no one has ever gone inside. According to them, the last cave is very steep, almost vertical and about 10m wide at the entrance. There are more caves in the region, some of them explored, other only partially. One of them was investigated by the south african army and was found to be full of toxic gaz. There are no running rivers in the whole region and only tiny springs.

I've googled for the South Africa Speleo Society and found nothing. Can you help?
I do have 2 pictures. How can I add them to the posting? I have to try to get good pics. Mine are almost useless. Just clues.
I will also investigate the german website about caving in Namibia, but I have to admit I tend to trust the old local Himbas assuring me that no-one has ever tried to descend in these caves.

some other references:
- Namibia - Namibie delegate of UIS (2005) Eugene MARAIS National Museum of Namibia, Namibia.
- Publications of the Spel?oclub (caving club) Berlin http://www.speleo-berlin.de/gb_publikationen.php, Publications of the SCB: Die Berliner ... - Spel?oclub Berlin
Vol. 29 covers: Guinea-Bissau ? Namibia (158 p.)
- NamibWeb http://www.namibweb.com/abcaves.htm

m.

Hi Sluka, thanks a lot for your insight. The german website seems to be unavailable, and I'm aware of the namibian page (there are a lot of caves ). One of the caves I'm talking about is indeed in the vicinity of Orumana, which is listed there. However there is another one there too, which is fairly well known and has the reputation of having been used by the south african army to store amunition. I suspect strongly that this is the one which has been surveyed. I've been trying to reach the SASA (South African Spealeology association) without success. Their site is very basic, the contact option doesn't work and there is no telephone number. The 2 other caves do not seem to be on the list of surveyed caves.

http://www.speleo-berlin.de/gb_publikationen.php

There was a slight error in the link Sluka had posted (accidentally had a comma on the end). The link above should work.

Phalbert said:

I've googled for the South Africa Speleo Society and found nothing. Can you help?

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Try pete.kenyon(at)kerneos.com or sacraven(at)mweb.co.za

Thank you everybody. I made contact with some well known specialists in South Africa and I look forward to meet them and go have a look.