The Punyelroo Cave is a sandstone cave inside the cliff face along the River Murray. (It is often misspelt Punyelaroo or Punyaleroo cave). There is a major folk in the cave and there are two major tunnels to explore and both go a few hundred meters into the cliff face. You can spend hours in the cave exploring different passages and working out all of the cave’s secrets.

You can find the carpark of the Punyelroo Cave at the T-Junction of Nildottie Road and Bypass Road just out of Swan Reach. Look for a sign on a gate that says “Private Property” and next to that is another sign saying “Cave Entrance”. Walk into the paddock with the Cave Entrance sign and follow the fence line towards the cliff of the River Murray. You will see a pumping shed on the river bank and if you look over the cliff you will see a track leading down along the cliff face to the South. Follow the path along the cliff face for at least 0.5km until you reach the Punyleroo cave entrace. This is an exciting walk in itself.

There are some cool things inside the cave such as the big log that must have floated in during a flood. The cave branches off from the log in two different directions – left and right. Both of them go a long way so bring spare batteries if you are planning to check everything out.

It’d be nice to have a map of the Punyelroo Cave but the description below should give you a good enough run down of what to expect.

There are a couple of sections that lead off from the main passage including one where you actually have to jump down to go further! These sections meet back up with the main passage.

Left passage highlights:

Unstable looking area with rocks all over the ground!

Perfectly round hole in the roof of one chamber. You can stand up and stick your head into it. (Place a torch in the hole to make your friends think you can see light out of the top of the cave!) Also in this chamber if you sit still you will hear a strange wooshing sound every now and then kind of like an small tremor. This part of the cave we believe is right underneath Nildottie road! But you can freak your friends out by telling them that it is an earthquake, cave monster….ect.

Bore pipe that goes smack bang through the middle of the cave.

Headstone rock at the end with a name carved into it.

Past the headstone rock you can crawl up and into another cavity which is really interesting but turns out to be a dead end.

Right passage highlights:

Easier going than than the left passage.

Plenty of crawly holes.

The cave gets tight at some points but if you keep going it opens up again.

At the end it gets so narrow that you would have to crawl on your guts to go further. I have been a little way on my guts but I haven’t followed it all the way to see if it opens up again. Backing out feet first is interesting.