Pimple Cave
Location:
Cobham Wilderness Area, lower southern Drakensberg. Pimple Cave is in a red bed below a towering sandstone cliff in the vicinity of the Policeman Tarns (S29 40.484 E29 19.838 at 2118 metres). It is accessed via a gully that leads down from the tarns above, although it can also be reached from below via the plateau at the head of the Siphongweni Valley.
GPS Coordinates: WGS 84
S29 40.632 E29 19.962 at 2102 metres (Landlubbers)
Description:
There is a small, level sleeping area nearer the gully that can accommodate about five hikers, with room for one more in amongst the boulders at the other end.
Comfort: 4/5
The cave floor is suitably level for sleeping.
Water: 3/5
In summer, water is plentiful in the tarns above, and there is even a little stream and waterfall below the tarns. However, in winter these water sources all dry up, so Pimple Cave is not ideal for winter hiking. The tarns are a few hundred metres from the cave.
Pools: 2/5
Some of the tarns may be deep enough to wallow in, but a billy bath is the best option, especially in summer when water is plentiful.
Shelter: 3/5
The surrounding cliff faces should provide some shelter from the worst of the weather, although driving rain from the south could be a problem.
Outlook: 3/5
The view is somewhat blinkered by the rock faces that surround the gully, but the cave does look out over the lower plateau and proteas towards Little Bamboo Mountain, with Garden Castle and the far southern Drakensberg escarpment forming a backdrop. This provides a familiar lower-berg feel to the location.
Overall Rating: 15/25
History:
The cave gets its name from the pimple-like inclusions in the rockface and its location quite near to The Pimple. When dagga smuggling was rife, it was used by smugglers who descended from Lesotho via Amakehla Pass and the Lakes Cave area. The very distinct path that branches off the main one to The Policeman from Lakes Cave was made by these smugglers. This path bypasses the Policeman Tarns and continues on to the cave gully over a lot of bedrock, at which point it becomes a vague way-to-go. The smugglers then proceeded down the hillside below the cave to the plateau below, continuing on to The Pimple and then down into the Siphongweni Valley itself. Alternatively, they went via Outlook Cave but otherwise followed the same route.