Cave Exploring

Not really bird related, but still a very interesting experience.

My dad and I went for a day trip to explore limestone caves in Umfurudzi Safari Area. We had been told where to find them by Iain Jarvis from Hippo Pools camp, who has also been inside the caves.
As it was just the two of us, we didn't go very far into the caves - this was more of a test to make sure we knew what we were doing before bringing more people!

The entrance is a hole in the ground, large enough to climb into quite comfortably. The hole was guarded by a rather unpleasant bunch of hornets.
Once through the entrance, a short tunnel took us into a cavern about 20 by 15 meters across, with a 'ceiling' sloping towards the ground at one end. It was in this part of the cave where we realised that gumboots would be an excellent addition to the next trip - the cave floor was carpeted with a thick layer of bat guano! A narrow, near-vertical tunnel lead to the next part of the cave, but we didn't venture down. I spent a while in the cavern trying to photograph bats (they were flying out of the narrow tunnel, but not landing near me) and other inhabitants of the cave.

There were many strange invertebrates down there amongst the guano. This one was particularly eye-catching.
It is a species of Tailless Whip Scorpion.

I managed to photograph a bat, eventually! This is a species of Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus sp.).

The drive through the park was uneventful, and rather hot. I saw a pair of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills, which I haven't seen in the area before. A large proportion of the park burned this dry season.

On the road out of Umfurudzi.