South Africa Andrew Hall · CC BY-SA 3.0
The descent
The entrance, at 34 m.
The real relief above Nelson Bay Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
34m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
19°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
69m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
19 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 19 °C here, in January and in August. In February the afternoon reaches 28 °C at the entrance, 9 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from January to February.
- 28°18°Jan
- 28°18°Feb
- 26°17°Mar
- 24°15°Apr
- 22°14°May
- 20°12°Jun
- 20°11°Jul
- 20°11°Aug
- 21°12°Sep
- 23°14°Oct
- 24°15°Nov
- 26°17°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Stone Age archaeological site in South Africa
Nelson Bay Cave is a cave in South Africa. The entrance is at 34 m. It has the sea at its mouth. It lies within Robberg Marine Protected Area.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Plettenberg Baynearest town · 5.4 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.2 km from the entrance
- George Airport (GRJ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 92 km in a straight lineCar hire at GRJ airport (George)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 km
- 6viewpoints within 3 kmRobberg Beach and 5 more
- 5car parks within 2 km
- 6information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 3campsites within 8 kmGarden Route Campsite
- 34hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmNothando Backpackers, Milkwood Manor, A whale of a view and 31 more
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Plettenberg Bay5.4 km in a straight line
- Kranshoek8.6 km in a straight line
- Wittedrif12 km in a straight line
- Kurland20 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Nelson Bay Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Coastya2 beaches within 3 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 28 | 28 | 26 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 23 | 24 | 26 |
| Afternoon | 28 | 28 | 26 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 23 | 24 | 26 |
| Night | 18 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 17 |
| Rain (mm) | 38 | 40 | 57 | 44 | 34 | 38 | 39 | 56 | 42 | 48 | 56 | 38 |
| Rainy days | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Sun hours/day | 11.0 | 10.2 | 9.3 | 8.1 | 7.3 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 9.2 | 9.8 | 10.8 | 11.3 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 28 | 28 | 18 | 38 | 11.0 |
| Feb | 28 | 28 | 18 | 40 | 10.2 |
| Mar | 26 | 26 | 17 | 57 | 9.3 |
| Apr | 24 | 24 | 15 | 44 | 8.1 |
| May | 22 | 22 | 14 | 34 | 7.3 |
| Jun | 20 | 20 | 12 | 38 | 6.9 |
| Jul | 20 | 20 | 11 | 39 | 7.4 |
| Aug | 20 | 20 | 11 | 56 | 8.1 |
| Sep | 21 | 21 | 12 | 42 | 9.2 |
| Oct | 23 | 23 | 14 | 48 | 9.8 |
| Nov | 24 | 24 | 15 | 56 | 10.8 |
| Dec | 26 | 26 | 17 | 38 | 11.3 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (34 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 199% | 128% | 82% | 65% | 186% | 40% | 67% | 185% | 101% | 151% | 101% | 89% |
| 2021 | 105% | 58% | 100% | 48% | 188% | 40% | 153% | 134% | 52% | 156% | 169% | 225% |
| 2022 | 32% | 97% | 122% | 81% | 115% | 146% | 57% | 78% | 70% | 45% | 48% | 262% |
| 2023 | 164% | 101% | 162% | 72% | 225% | 219% | 205% | 41% | 241% | 150% | 11% | 155% |
| 2024 | 81% | 48% | 68% | 263% | 53% | 330% | 97% | 193% | 119% | 224% | 111% | 17% |
| 2025 | 72% | 140% | 156% | 148% | 36% | 156% | 61% | 13% | 58% | 94% | 53% | 73% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Nelson Bay Cave
South Africa
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 34 mEntrance altitude
- 19 °CInside, all year
Klasies River Caves
South Africa · 93 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 32 mEntrance altitude
- 19 °CInside, all year
Cango Caves
South Africa · 133 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 660 mEntrance altitude
- 16 °CInside, all year
Blombos Cave
South Africa · 201 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 40 mEntrance altitude
- 18 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q15261578) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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