Cape Point: Batsata Cove

Batsata Cove: Click to enlarge ...

I've not been to Batsata Cove ... I think.

I can say with assurance I've not wandered around Batsata Cove. Perhaps, overlooking it from a guano-covered and gull and cormorant-infested cavern some fifty feet above the large rock guarding it counts as a visit. Perhaps it's as close as I'll get.

So what? The myriad expeditions I've mounted, all focused on exploring the caves and caverns of the area, have been well worth the effort.

Batsata Cove's one of those places other people — usually older people, say they visited thirty years ago. I know the speleological society climbed down there a few years back because they reported it and remain my only source of information on it. Approachable only from the sea or the mountain, it's not a walker's destination.

The path — such as it is or was — which drops down between Judas Peak and De Boer is definitely not a doddle.


Batsata Cove: Click to enlarge ...

The other path — which doesn't exist and should therefore not be tried, drops down as a cleft in the face of De Boer. It might be suited to members of the Mountain Club, but it sure ain't for walking. Wendy and I tried it just over a year ago and she still wakes up at night — screaming.

We got out at 19:00, but it was only the second time I've thought of helicopters. On the first occasion, I was elsewhere.

We'll revisit that little tale of terror and stupidity at some later date ...

The nut of it is that, much as I'd like to walk to Batsata Cove, I can't. And, because I've tried just about every approach, you probably can't either. At least I've got to within spitting distance of it. A beautiful place, it makes for stunning photographs.

But you'll have to make do with these ...

Walk rating: Impossible — and dangerous to boot.