by Tim Truluck
Kuruman is a small town in the Northen Cape region of South Africa.
12 July 1994. T Truluck, S Craven, H Horrell (SASA (Cape)), A Sewell (Westminster Speleological Group - London) and K Kloppenborg (Buffalo, USA), en route to the dolomite caves in Zimbabwe, stopped in Kuruman to explore and survey the Eye of Kuruman. We made contact with Mr de Klerk of the Kuruman Municipality who had earlier written to us granting permission to explore the cave.
He showed us where the Eye was and arranged for us to have unlimited access to the cave. We camped at the well maintained municipal campsite adjacent to the Eye. After supper at a local restaurant we returned to the campsite and prepared to go caving at around 18h00. Craven was tired after driving for 2 days and he elected to remain in camp to catch up un his beauty sleep (much needed).
There are 3 elements that make up the Eye: the series of cave passages in the small dolomite koppie, the actual efflux of the water running out of the cave, and the large artificial pool into which the water is collected. The whole is regarded as the Eye and is enclosed by a fence. A small entrance fee is charged by the Municipality who also operate a small tea and curio shop.
We were obviously interested in the underground or cave part of the Eye. There are 3 entrances: a man-made square and gated entrance to the north-west; the original, now gated entrance where the water refluxes to the north (The Eye); and a vertical man-made entrance over which is housed a municipal water pump house to the south.
The cave consists of a series of dry and wet interlinking passages. There is a large chamber to the south with a few old and decayed formations. Some graffiti is evident. Several pits and concrete constructions have been built, presumably to house various pumping equipment in the past. The water is surprisingly warm and it was only after several hours of being immersed that one starts to feel the cold. Truluck and Kloppenborg surveyed most of the cave while Horrell and Sewell investigated various tight and wet side passages.
After several hours of caving the party left the cave via the pump house - a vertical climb up a permanent ladder of about 4 m. Upon reaching the surface, we were suddenly encountered with a mind and body numbing cold. Night had fallen and the outside temperature was below freezing point. Luckily the campsite was only 100 m away and we stumbled blindly to our tents to collect some dry clothes before warming ourselves under the hot showers. Our wet clothes took only a quarter of an hour to freeze when hung out.
The following morning while Craven visited the municipality offices and archives, we returned to the cave to complete the survey of the smaller passages. This took about 2 hours. While we were sitting in the sun - Craven returned and told us that we had been scooped. In 1907 a survey was published and in 1991 John Irish and Eugene Marais had surveyed the cave and made an inventory of the fauna found therein. Luckily we only found out about this after we had completed our survey.
In comparing the 3 surveys there were some glaring omissions. This could be excused by the 1907 one as it was not done by cavers used to grovelling in small passages. However, it seemed that when compared to the 1991 survey, we had missed several obvious passages including the "Underwater Passage" which was even marked in the 1907 survey. We could accept that Irish and Marais had been more thorough, but not surely we wouldn't have missed a passage that Rogers in 1907 had included.
Upon closer inspection of the two earlier surveys and a careful reading of the text, it became obvious that the water levels in the cave had fluctuated. In both the prior surveys the water level had been far below the level we had encountered. The deepest part of the cave was located at A. It was over 2.2 m deep and almost reached the roof of the cave. On previous surveys this deepest part has been barely 1.2 m high (Irish & Marais 1991; Rogers 1907).
Furthermore the "Underwater Passage" was completely submerged in 1994 as were several extensions. At a prominant junction in the main passage, the water flowed completely over the small ledge that in 1991 was indicated as dry in 1991. The high water level precluded any exploration and survey down most of the passages except in the narrow and wet passage south of the pump house. We have thus added the length of this passage to the length calculated by Irish and Marais (1991) and the cave is now 271 m long
The Eye of Kuruman is a really pleasant wet cave which is well worth a visit if in the area. The campsite is well situated, is very well maintained and cheap.