Justins Caves

Understand

The site has spectacular topography and colourful ecology, and is justly one of the more popular shore dives of Cape Town.

Position 1 Justin's Caves swimthrough: S33°58.848’ E018°21.473’ — (Shoreward entrance to main cave) 2 Justin's Caves big rock: S33°58.850’ E018°21.500’ — (The highest rock in the group) The southern and closer inshore group of rocks off the point at North Oudekraal This site is in the Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area since 2004. A permit is required. It is just inside the Karbonkelberg restricted area.

Name

The site name "Justin's Caves" is partly descriptive of the small caves and spacious swimthroughs at the site, but it is not recorded who Justin was. The site has had this name since before 1983.

Depth The bottom is generally from about 8 m to about 13 m. There is very little sand. You can find 15 m over the flat reef to the north.

Visibility Visibility varies significantly with the weather. It can be as good as 20 m on a very good day, and this is usually associated with an upwelling following a south easterly wind. There can also be a surface layer with plankton bloom which may make the visibility near the surface far worse than below this upper layer, and this may be associated with a thermocline. Upwellings generally result in cold water. Visibility of 8 m or more would be considered good. Large swell will result in strong surge and usually poor visibility.

Topography

The Justins Caves group of rocks comprises huge granite corestone boulders in a cluster, with several swim-throughs, narrow gaps, walls, overhangs and caves. Hardly any sand bottom is visible between the rocks. Spectacular in good visibility. There is a large iron anchor thought to be from the wreck of Het Huis te Kraaiestein on the low granite outcrops north of the caves. There is hardly any kelp in this area and the reef life is limited to mostly Cape sea urchins, dark sea cucumbers, mussels and Spiny starfish. Further north from the anch

Getting there

Shore dive. Parking at the side of the road on outside of bend north of the Twelve Apostles Hotel near S33°58.941’ E018°21.594’. There is an entry/exit point directly opposite the caves at the bottom of a slope covered with rounded boulders of medium to small size at S33°58.910’ E018°21.571’. This gives the most direct route to the caves which are under the group of large granite boulders about 150 m offshore. The gully is quite shallow over rounded sandstone boulders and there is a nice flat granite rock at the entry point to put gear on if the tide is low enough. If the tide is very low the kelp can be a bit of an obstacle, particularly in the gully, and the rocks can be slippery. An alternative entry and exit point which is far more protected from the south west swell is at Sandy Cove, about 50 m to the north, but if the conditions are too rough at the entry described here, the caves will be very surgey. The first swimthrough referred to in the route description is under the second high rock from the left, and the main swimthrough is under the low rock just to the right of that in the photo. Access is over the small round boulders in the foreground and through a gap to the left of the gully. Swim out on the surface to just short of the high rock in the background. The gully is quite shallow and at low tide the kelp is a hassle. The site is not generally done as a boat dive, but if it is, the boat should stay out of the channel between the rocks and the shore, as unmarked divers use this area on the surface and at shallow depth, and there is a dense kelp forest. The ground is generally unsuitable for anchoring, and boats should not be left unattended at anchor.

See

Marine life

There is a large and fairly dense kelp forest on the way out and back, which can be a bit of an obstacle on the surface at low tide. The rocks at the caves are covered in the typical reef life of the area, with spectacular growths of sponges, soft and noble corals, sea fans and ascidians in the sheltered areas under overhangs and in the swimthroughs.

Features Several swim-throughs and caves, and a large anchor from the historical wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman "Het Huis te Kraaiestein"

Photography A good site for macro photography, and wide angle work if the visibility is good.

Routes

Enter at the north-west facing gully at the end of the western branch of the main path. Swim out on the surface to the highest rock in the group. Dive and by keeping the high rocks on your right, follow the high rocks generally south. Go north through the swim-through at approximately S33°58.863 E018°21.475 then head past a curved hollow in the bottom, north to the main swimthrough at S33°58.848’ E018°21.473’. This swimthrough branches and has two exits to the north. Choose whichever you prefer. From the far side of this swimthrough, swim north again some 40m over fairly flat granite outcrops and see if you can find the large iron anchor, said to be from the wreck of the Huis te Kraaiestein, at S33°58.825’ E018°21.444’. Return south to the main group of rocks and spend your remaining time exploring the various gaps and overhangs among the boulders. You can follow the route shown on the map, by going around the reef with the exposed rocks to your right and swimming through one of the narrow gaps between exposed rock on the north west side of the group, then keep the exposed rocks to your left and swim south east until back at more or less the start point of the dive. Return to shore at shallow depth on a compass course of about 150° magnetic to avoid wind and kelp fronds. Exit at same point as entry. An alternative exit point is below the storm water outlet s