Farewelled Rick & Marcia today - they are heading to Bunbury where we were staying , then after all the chores were done , we headed to the beach . Not just any beach , for those in the surfing fraternity it’s the surfing spot in Margaret River where the competitions are held - Surfers Point . There are waves here for all levels of ability , from beginner to expert . It was interesting to watch surfers jockey for position on the waves , some cutting others off , others just bailing out and waiting for the next wave . The waves are quite interesting as well - breaking to both the left and the right .
The coastline here has a lot of limestone caves and also many reefs as well , with many deep pools in close . Margaret River also flows out about 800m to the north in a nice sandy bay .
After watching for a while & enjoying the sun , we headed down to Gnarabup and found a parking area above the boat ramp & bay , that had some chairs and had lunch . Views over the bay were awesome - crystal clear waters again .
Back in the ute and down to another surf location - Grunters - another white sand bay with lots of surfers enjoying the waves .
The only way out was to back track where we had been , through the small locality of Prevelly , then climb back up the hills to a viewing area looking down over the Margaret River and ruins of an old 2 or 3 storey building beside the river - must find out some info on it !!
Okay time for some underground action , we made our way down to Mammoth Cave . I mentioned earlier about the limestone caves - there is a ridge that runs from Dunsborough down to Augusta and consists of a lot of caves - only 5 ( that we know of so far ) are accessible . Mammoth Cave is the closest to Margaret River . We went to the admissions area and checked out prices (as you do ) and got a bit of a shock $22.50 for 1 cave , $40 for 2 caves - that’s per person - we chose the 2 cave option - you can upgrade that to the 3 or 4 cave pass after if you wish !!
Mammoth Cave is a self guided tour with and audio player and headset , which is quite good !! We wandered down to the entry , hoping it was going to be worth the money we’d just outlaid - being the frugal people we are HAHAHA !! Walking in the entry we were feeling a cool breeze - like someone had left the fridge door open - quite pleasant !! Entering the cave , we were quite amazed, right from the start there were stalactites and stalagmites , straws and shawls in their thousands !! It is a big cavernous area , with walkways leading you through , up & down steps , to more and more features . You do have to remind yourself to do the audio as well .
There is the fossilised remains of a jaw bone and teeth in one of the walls , from a giant sized prehistoric wombat ( Zygomaturus ) that obviously died and dropped there , covered by layers of dirt & stone over thousands of years .
It almost seemed an anticlimax as we were leaving - there were still features to look at , but not as many !! We climbed stairs up & out and found we had crossed under the main road we had earlier driven over . From there you have a choice of 200m back to the entry & carpark or 700m through the Marri & Karri forest - that was our choice !! It was dense forest , thick undergrowth with trees towering above up to 40m. The Marri trees are covered in rough bark - and are known as red gum here - they bleed red when damaged , and dont grow as tall as the Karri . There is a Karri that has fallen , it is about 2.5m thick and over 30m long - some timber in that one !!
Not far away from it are several still living brothers & sisters of it .
It was only 2:45 , so we decided to go to Lake Cave - only 4klms down the road , and check it out as well . We found a large NPark entry building , that has a great indoor display and an even better outside deck that overlooks the entry to Lake Cave . Some of the deck is suspended over the edge with clear glass windows on the deck that you can look straight down into the hole . There are 300 steps to go down and back up again to get into the cave . The entry area of this cave used to be the roof of the cave untill it collapsed about 500 years ago - they know this becaause there is a Karri tree in the hole that fell in when the roof collapsed and has been carbo dated to be 500 years old !!
This is a guided tour unfortunately , so we had to be with a large group of people , rules & regs and all that stuff !! One of the features of this cave , that is only 80m long by about 5 to 20m wide is the undergound water creating a shallow lake that gives great reflections . The main feature is a suspended table , held up by 2 columns , that hovers above the water line. It weighs about 5.3 tonnes !!!!
It is a much different cave to Mammoth , not as large , but different - it has a large number of straws coming from the roof , some over a metre long - they are hollow and water drips down through them . That is another feature of this cave - it grows twice as quick as the other caves due to the water filtering down and flowing through - a whole 2cm growth per year !!
There is a feature that looks like a dragons head ( a little bit Harry Potterish )
That was the tour over & done with , so we made our way back up and out of the cave - 300 steps that got the heart thumping and muscles burning ( might not quite be as fit as we think we are ) it didn’t take too long for the heart rate to settle again though .
Todays done , head for home !!
