Chinhoyi Caves · Zimbabwe · Cave & cavern · Freshwater
Bat Cave
A guano-floored side pool linked underwater to the main Sleeping Pool shaft
Area photo: Suesen · CC BY-SA 3.0
Bat Cave, also called the Cave of the Bats, is a smaller pool at the north end of the Chinhoyi cave system, reached on the surface by scrambling over boulders from the Dark Cave galleries rather than from the main Sleeping Pool shore. Its own pool bottoms out at about 13 m, and cave-diving surveys have followed a submerged passage from its floor through to the main Sleeping Pool shaft.
Also known as Cave of the Bats.
Where it is and how deep
17.3561° S, 30.1298° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Getting to the water here is as much of the dive as being in it. From the Dark Cave galleries above the Sleeping Pool, a scramble over boulders leads to a second, smaller pool at the base of what cavers call the Baboons Vestibule sinkhole, its surface often carrying a crust of bat guano from the colony overhead. It is a colder, darker corner of the system than the main shaft, and most of what there is to see is the rock itself.
The pool bottoms out at around 13 m, shallow next to the main shaft, but early cave-diving teams found it was not a dead end: a passage near the bottom leads into a submerged cleft that has been followed through to the main Sleeping Pool shaft. The connection is dived as an extension of a Sleeping Pool trip rather than as a stand-alone dive, and it is guided, cave-trained territory rather than somewhere a certified diver goes on their own.
Background
The pool and its connecting passage were mapped by cave-diving surveys working out of the Dark Cave in the 1960s and 1970s, when divers traced a submerged cleft from its floor through to the main Sleeping Pool shaft and confirmed the two pools were part of one flooded system rather than separate caves.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair |
Season follows Chinhoyi Caves: The pool stays a constant 22–24 °C all year; ratings track visibility, best in the Aug–Nov dry season and reduced when Dec–Mar rains cloud the entrance.
Know before you go
- The link to the main shaft is a genuine overhead passage; it is a cave-diving route and should only be attempted with a guide qualified for it.
- Bat guano on parts of the surface and floor can cloud the shallow water locally, cutting the visibility that makes the rest of the system easy to dive.
Sources
- Chinhoyi Caves History — Scuba World Zimbabwe
- Chinhoyi Caves — Wikipedia
- A guide to Chinhoyi Caves: Deep blue wonder — Great Zimbabwe Guide
In The Logbook
- Diving at altitude: why the rules changeBody & health · 7 min read
- Freshwater diving: lakes, springs and quarriesFreshwater · 15 min read
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