indwe magazine – May 2005

Into the Hyena’s Lair
Exploring Botswana’s Drotsky Caves
Text: Johan Badenhorst
Images: © Rey Janse van Rensburg
To get to ‘The Hyena’s Lair’ you need a vehicle, and a 4x4 at that, since you will be exploring the Kalahari to the west of the Okavango.
Driving from South Africa or Namibia, you travel along the Trans Kalahari Highway towards Ghanzi. From Ghanzi you take the road to Maun, heading for Tsau once you reach Bothatogo. Suddenly the GPS will tell you that you are in a “large body of water.” Nothing of the sort is to be seen, and yet you’ll drive through Lake Ngami.
Lake Ngami last had water, flowing in from the Okavango Delta, in 1968. Not even the heavy rains of 2000/1 could fill it again. This was not always the case. When the Dorslandtrekkers passed the area in 1870 there was so much water that they had to abandon the area because of the malaria threat. Twenty-five years before the Trekkers, David Livingston wrote of the lake that was “a bird and wild life paradise.” He estimated the lake to be more than 800 square kilometres in size. When it filled up in 1968, the eventual size was 250 square kilometres, and the lake kept its water for 20 years, slowly draining into the sands of the Kalahari.
Leaving the empty lake behind, you head for Tsau and Nokaneng. If you are well equipped with food, water, fuel and an extra spare wheel, preferably also with another 4x4 or two as company, this is where you turn right. Be sure to leave behind all feelings of claustrophobia, and replace them with a sense of adventure.
You can leave the main road at Tsau, and turn left into the desert. The clever ones will continue to Nokaneng as the ‘road’ from Tsau is at best a very bad track, and for the most part an extended exercise in bundu bashing in the direction as indicated by the GPS. The final destination is the Gchihaba Hills, close to the border of Namibia.
As the crow flies, The Gchihaba Hills are situated 120 kilometres west from Tsau, but travelling on the ‘better’ track from Nokaneng via the Aha Hills, the distance is close to 200 kilometres. It’s a bumpy affair, and you may well wonder if it is worth the trouble. Yet, every kilometre you travel takes you further away from civilization and closer to an epic adventure.
Arriving at the Gchihaba Hills, your first inclination may be to immediately set off to explore the caves under the dolomite marble. But after a long trek over the harsh terrain, the best idea is to set up camp, start a fire, enjoy the sunset, and go to bed early, as these caves offer an experience not to be matched anywhere in southern Africa.
A farmer from Ghanzi, Martinus Drotsky, is believed to be the first white man to have laid eyes on the caves when the Bushmen showed it to him in 1932. They referred to it as Gchihaba – the hyena’s lair. But the caves have been around a little longer than that. A few hundred million years to be more precise. Cavities, previously filled with water in the sedimentary rock, now form large chambers adorned by imposing stalactites and stalagmites, created by dripping water, and containing large quantities of minerals.
What makes these caves so different from any other is the lack of guides, lights, and maps. People have attempted to lay a sisal string from one of the cave’s entrances to another, but today the string is broken in places, or just disappears in the dusty soil. When you enter the caves, make sure you have a torch as well as a back up, a bottle of water, and lots of courage. A compass may also come in handy. Hidden from the sky, no GPS can assist you in determining your route, but an old fashioned compass will help prevent you from walking around in circles.
The labyrinths and chambers are impressive – that is, impressive without artificial light and Bach or Enja blasting from hidden speakers. These caves are impressive in their dramatic simplicity. The further you move into the caves, away from the sunlight, the more dramatic it becomes. Large pillars, formed over many millions of years, loom in the dim light. At places you need to crawl through narrow openings on your stomach. Elsewhere there is a vertical drop of close on eight metres to negotiate. This is where a few ropes may come in handy.
And then there are the bats, congregating in a few of the chambers. At times their squeaking noise is deafening, but it all adds to the dramatic feel of the caves. The bats are mostly Commerson’s leafnosed bats. These bats are gregarious, occurring in colonies of up to several hundred, and are the largest insect eating bats in Southern Africa. In lesser numbers, Dent’s horseshoe bats and Common slit-faced bats also occur in the caves.
The floor of the cave is covered with fine dust, blown in by the wind through the entrances. The mixture of dust and humidity, combined with the sometimes narrow openings one has to crawl through, quickly takes a heavy toll on your water bottle, so be sure to ration your water supply!
To make the most of your journey to Gchihaba, you need to spend at least two to three nights camping in the vicinity of the caves. These vast caves require more than one visit, and hikes around the area, especially in the mornings and late afternoons; offer an abundance of fauna and flora. The vegetation on the hills is quite different to the rest of the Kalahari, with lots of trees like rock figs, Kalahari apple leaves and Raisin bushes. But be alert – there are many wild animals in the vicinity. Wild dogs are spotted on a regular basis, as are lions. The antelope most often seen in the area are springbok, gemsbok, duiker and steenbok, but they are not in abundance.
It is speculated that Hendrik Matthys van Zyl, a wealthy farmer from the Ghanzi district, buried his fortune in these caves in the 1800s. Setting off in search of the hidden treasure presents an excellent motive to visit Gchihaba – but expect to find much more!
Top >