Blue Peripatus to Canadian Cave link

Anthony Hitchcock
June 2008

A caving party went up Table Mountain at 10h00 on Saturday 14th June. Present were Alan Butcher, Mario and Evelyn Fedele, Eugenie Bahlsen and I. We planned to descend the narrow vertical slot in the small cave between Peripatus and Canadian Cave and explore below. I wanted to complete mapping the linking passage between Canadian Cave and the next cave towards Peripatus Cave. I entered Canadian Cave and with Evelyn’s assistance established beacons and took readings and measurements linking the two caves. The connection is too small to pass through, but could easily be chopped open. We decided to leave the passage undamaged as the connection had been established.

Evelyn then descended the vertical slot with the aid of rope and ladder. She found herself in a passage that headed towards Peripatus Cave so we sent Eugenie into the next small cave that was mapped the previous week and links to Peripatus Cave.   Eugenie and Evelyn found a connecting passage between them and so completed the connection between Peripatus and Canadian Caves. I mapped what I could, but left the final readings to Eugenie and Evelyn because access to the lower connecting passage was too difficult for me to enter.

Evelyn and Eugenie then explored a passage that leads to lower levels. They were very excited when they returned. They reported a series of passages on different levels and much more cave to explore and map.