Sudwala Caves and the Long Tom Pass

Dolomite Laid Down Around 2.2 Billion Years Ago, Which Makes These Among The Oldest Known Caves On Earth, With Chambers Used As A Refuge By The Swazi In The Nineteenth Century And An Amphitheatre Chamber Used For Concerts And Over The Escarpment The Long Tom Pass, Named For The Siege Guns Dragged Over It In 1900 And Still Carrying Their Emplacements · Schagen, Mpumalanga

The dolomite these caves are cut into was laid down roughly 2.2 billion years ago, which is a figure worth sitting with: the rock is nearly half as old as the planet, and the chambers hollowed out of it are among the oldest known caves on earth. That claim is about age rather than size - the Cango three hundred kilometres south is the bigger show - and what Sudwala offers instead is a vast cool entrance chamber with natural ventilation, used as a refuge by the Swazi in the nineteenth century and now used occasionally for concerts, and a guided walk through formations under a mountain called Mankelekele. Sixty kilometres north-west over the escarpment runs the Long Tom Pass, named for the Creusot siege guns the Boer forces dragged over it in 1900 while firing back down the road, with the emplacements still marked beside the tar. Caves and a gun road: two unrelated things in one Mpumalanga day.

In the Mankelekele mountain between Nelspruit and Lydenburg, with the Long Tom Pass 60 km north-west, Schagen, Mpumalanga, South Africa

SUDWALA IS A GUIDED TOUR ONLY, running regularly through daylight hours with no booking needed for the standard trip - you arrive, you wait for the next group, you go. The CRYSTAL TOUR is a different proposition entirely: a long, wet, crawling expedition offered on limited days to small booked groups and NOT SUITABLE FOR MOST VISITORS, which the row says because people confuse the two. There is a restaurant, a shop, a dinosaur park on the site and parking. The cave holds a steady temperature year round, so it is cool in summer and mild in winter. THE LONG TOM PASS is a public tarred road on the R37 between Lydenburg and Sabie, open at any hour and free, with the gun emplacement markers beside it and MIST THAT CLOSES VISIBILITY TO NOTHING at short notice. Both are MALARIA-FREE at this altitude.

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