Years ago ( actually in 2005) I was part of a hiking group that visited the Martial Eagle Valley and cave. This was a 4 day trip that started at Bannermans Hut in the Giants Castle area and continued on to Centenary Hut, with the third day being dedicated to exploring the Martial Eagle Valley cave and surrounds. As I remember, this was not an area often visited by the public as its hidden in the lower Berg amongst the many high ridges and valleys and was most often used by the Park Rangers as a base. It even had a proper toilet built above the cave with a wonderful view. Richard and I decided to revisit this place some 13 years later to see whether we could find it again.
Our hike from the camp site to Bannermans hut was long and hot. We detoured down a ridge just before reaching the hut, heading down into the long valley below. The going was tough as the grass was very thick and long which made walking difficult and hard on the feet, not to mention the extra energy involved in picking up your feet higher than usual. After an hour or two of negotiating side gully's and steep contouring we could see the tree lined gorge where we thought the cave might be. Sure enough a little further on we came across the toilet, still sitting there intact and pretty well hidden as its in a slight hollow. We duly took the obligatory photo and then made our way down to the cave. It was clear that it has not been used in years and as there are many trees and a massive boulder in front, is very dark, gloomy and dusty. I was intrigued to note that there were several tree stumps arranged neatly on one side, each with a rock deposited on the top, and I wondered what that was about? Fortunately we had noticed a lovely tenting spot just prior to entering the gorge so we set up camp here, right next to the river. It was a perfect afternoon and evening.
We were up early the following day as we wanted to get going before it got too hot. We had to negotiate our way up, down and around quite a few massive ridges with more bundu bashing to endure and although it was rather a tough day, we saw some beautiful valleys and waterfalls and the vastness of these huge and at the same time secret spaces was once again impressed upon us. The Berg is always much bigger than you think! It was incredibly hot and it was with much relief that we trudged into camp at 3.00pm - that beer and cider never tasted so good!
