The Cave of the Spirits - Saltpeterskrans

April 13, 2008 - Additional Pictures in Slide Show to the Right

During our visit to the Free State with Paul, a colleague of Randy’s, we visited an amazing place called by the local Afrikaners – Saltpeterskrans. It is a pilgrimage site of the Basotho people, a people resident in both South Africa and Lesotho. Reminiscent of Christian pilgrimage sites which I have seen, this is an amazing site which we were very privileged to visit.

We turned off of the main road at a place called Surrender Hill, a battle ground of the Boer war. Driving down in to the valley on a dirt road we passed a large dairy farm and parked beside another farm house (see photo in the slide show). A ¾ mile walk through fields and scrub forest, the journey began in open fields surrounded by huge rock outcroppings,
following a stream that serves both the pilgrims and the farms. The rock outcroppings towered above us and began to grown narrower and narrower.

In the distance, Paul pointed to what appeared to be a small cave and we could see a woman sitting in the opening. Just around the next bend in the river, we saw four people sitting by the river with bright yellow pails next to them. Each person had a reed like, rectangular mask covering his or her face. The reed covered the face from forehead to below the chin and fully masked the face. The gender was somewhat obscured by the mask, but the gestures seemed to indicate that they were women.

As we rounded the corner, the women noticed us and stooped what ever they were doing. It was clear that we had come across some kind of ritual in process, something we were not meant to witness. The “women” were sitting at the river’s edge and had their feet in the water, the yellow pails by the side of each. While tempting to photograph them, we knew that doing so would violate the privacy of the act and might even destroy whatever the people were meant to be doing. Out of respect for them, we quickly moved along.

Just beyond the bend, the cave or kran came into clearer focus. A kran is Afrikaans’s for overhang. In this photo it looks like crevasse in the rock.

I now saw that what I had taken as our destination earlier was in fact a smaller opening underneath the much larger cave. you can see the smaller opening at the very bottom of this picture.

The larger cran or overhang looked enormous, but in fact proved to be even larger once we had ventured into the space. On the very right hand side was clearly a settlement as a woman was hanging out washing on a line. Paul told us that people would come to the cave for varying periods of time from a day to months on end.

As we climbed the opposite shore, we saw a small structure with ritual grounds in front. The space had vestiges of traditional beliefs (white flags on poles, stones marking the spot, mixed with Christian symbolism of the cross.

Climbing higher still we entered the main cave. The cave has been created over the centuries by water coming from above and washing away the rock beneath. As the space took on a spiritual significance, man may have also helped to further carve the interior space. The water had created a wall to the outside and a large 200M x 100M x 50M central space. The space had clear areas that were bounded off by rocks where people were living for some periods of time. Some of the spaces looked more “settled” than others and this may indicate those that are for long and short term stays respectively.

There was a large central “alter” space with candles and the remnants of candles. Deeper in the cave, there was clearly a back chamber in the darkened portion of the inner cave. There were people in it that were clearly conducting a ritual and we therefore did not go near there

The pilgrims welcomed our presence and sometimes spoke with Paul in Afrikaans. Several of the women were from Johannesburg (a 5 hour car ride away) who had been there for the past week and were getting ready to leave. They really wanted to be to be photographed here in this place. They were clearly pleased about their time there and wanted to share this with us. As we left them and moved to another section of the cave, we noticed that they were digging up dirt to take back with them to Johannesburg.

We moved out of the main space where the people had been and came to a longer narrower section with exquisitely built structures. They lined both the interior and the outer wall of the space and were often stacked one upon the other. You can see that some of the structures are made of mud, others of stone and some of reeds. You can also get a sense of the curvature of the roof and the outside wall of the cave to the left in this picture.

Next came this wonderful painting of angels which fascinated us for its blending of traditional and Christian (that picture is for you Laura). I then tried to capture the curved “ceiling wall” over this space to give you a sense of the way in which the water carved out this place.

Around the next bend, there was a sign written in English that said “no photographs”. So cameras were put away and regrettably you have only my poor attempts at descriptions. The space beyond this sign was filled with “spirit-houses”, at least we think that they were “spirit houses”. Some were large enough for a person to sleep in, others were tiny, but all were beautifully designed and built. This space continued for perhaps another 200 meters but the space was much narrower than the original cave and felt much more intimate. The structures used different building techniques, some stone, some reed, some wood and displayed different design motives. I was wishing that I could sketch, but none of us had sketch paper. There were no people in this section of the cave and after exploring the exteriors of the structures for half an hour.

We then went over a final wall and came to the last space within this enormous cave. This section is marked by the white, round stone building in the last six photographs. We met a woman and her son there who were very happy to welcome us. She was clearly living there and it was she who I had seen hanging out clothes when we first approached the cave area. She showed us the way down from the cave which had changed since Paul's last visit. This was a mark of the vibrancy of the place, how long it has existed is unknown, but clearly it is an active, vibrant changing place of devotion and reverence.

After climbing down from the cave entrance, we crossed the river again and started for the car.

In front of us was a group of pilgrims who were leaving after being in the krans for some time. They turned to greet us and asked that we photograph them. We followed this group for some time and then they stopped and let us pass. We assumed that they were resting, but no sooner had we passed, than they started to sing. It sounded like a beautiful song of goodbye to the cave and the spirits who dwell there.

We walked along listening to the song and then the sound of the river, until the farm came into view again. Just there we met an old woman who was walking all alone. Paul spoke with her and she said that she was from Johannesburg and that she had journeyed form there by herself. She said that she was sick and felt a need to go to the cave. She also said that she was very scared because she was all alone. Paul told her that she did not need to be scared, that there were many people at the cave and she would not be alone. This seemed to comfort her somewhat and we left amazed at what we had seen.

I was struck by the reverence of this space, the pilgrims were happy to share it with us as long as we behaved in a manner befitting the place. We were quiet on our walk back, reveling in an appreciation for the people's devotion and the shared experience of the sacred.