For many years I have wanted to go to Corncob Cave, a small cave not that well known and tucked away in a corner of the escarpment between Mzimude Pass and Walkers Ridge. It had eluded us on a previous attempt to find it from the Garden Castle side, so when an opportunity came up, we decided to try again, this time our approach would be from Bushmans Nek. Richard and I were joined by Jeremy, Richards son and we left Bushmans Nek under blue and sunny skies. The walk up this pretty valley is always pleasant, but we were nonetheless pleased to arrive at Bushmans Cave where we settled in and spent a relaxed afternoon. Jeremy is a chef and cooked up a storm that evening with a Buckwheat risotto that tasted out of this world! We were up very early the following morning as we wanted to reach Corncob Cave before the predicted afternoon thunder storms. After climbing up to the contour path we traversed around until we reached Saddlenek Pass. The climb was mostly on a grass slope, but sustained and steep in places. The wind became stronger the closer we got to the top and it was really pumping as we traversed across to and then up Isacatula Pass. Once at the top we could clearly see the ‘gap’ in the Walkers Ridge line ahead where we believed Corncob Cave was. We were a bit concerned about water, but could see some pools lower down so that was a relief. We reached the gap and were met with the view of a very steep grassy slope heading downwards towards the base of Mzimude Pass. There certainly did not appear to be any cave in sight but we climbed down the top section and discovered it tucked away to the right in a little corner. What a fabulous outlook this cave has! Its basically a blowhole and fits three comfortably with 4 at a push. The base of the cave has lots of small stones scattered all over which proved to be comfortable enough once our mattresses were down. We were most surprised to find an ancient corncob on the floor of the cave, presumably the very one the cave was named after! You can also see Mzimude Cave from here which was interesting. As the afternoon progressed, the skies turned dark and the wind thankfully dropped. We heard a lot of thunder and the expected rain came, although not as bad as we had thought. No lightning apart from one massive strike which made us all jump. Later on the mist drifted in from the valleys below and it was quite surreal to be enjoying fried potato chips and a Mexican spicy sauce as a mid afternoon snack - courtesy of Chef Jeremy! It was still a total white out by the time we settled in for the night and we hoped it would clear by the morning. We had taken a good look at the pass below the cave and decided to see if we could find a way down. Of course if we couldn’t, then we would have to come all the way up again, so we were holding thumbs. It is a wide grassy gully with lots of rocks and a bit of scree that made the going a bit slow at times, but otherwise easy. As we approached the bottom we could now see that there were big drop-offs into Mzimude pass…..our hearts sank, but after a bit of exploration, Richard found a way through a little saddle on the true right side of the pass. We needed to do a bit of bumsliding down a steep grassy section and then some careful down climbing through a small rock band before descending a gully and then out right on to the huge grassy plateau.
We headed towards Whytes Cave,and saw some hikers ahead of us. We wondered whether they were also headed for Whytes, but when they continued on to the ridge above Painters Cave, we assumed they were hiking out to Bushmans Nek. We arrived at the cave quite early and it was not long before a swim in that glorious pool became top priority! Not long after this, the hikers we had seen previously arrived from the Garden Castle side. It turned out they were from the MCSA and I knew quite a few of them - it was great to catch up with them again! We enjoyed another chilled afternoon and the last of Chef Jeremys dinners that night - this time it was green millet and sorghum with soft goats cheese and curds, dried chilli, garlic, dried cauliflower, carrots, salami and goji berries. Wow!! How can we go back to 2 min noodles after this?
We were up early again the following morning and said our goodbyes to our fellow hikers and Whytes Cave before heading out on to the Giants Cup trail and back to Bushmans Nek. It had been an amazing weekend with gourmet food, good company and a bit of adventure all thrown in!
