11 March 2012

So another big day. Up early and back down past Margaret River to 'do' a couple more caves. Today was Lake Cave and Mammoth Cave.
Lake Cave first up.

Lake Cave

Only 300 steps each way for this one! Once inside you can see all the usual stalagtites and stalagmites and straws and columns and a flow as well which is one of only two known in the world at present. There are sure to be more when caves are found or known caves are finally fully explored. This particular cave as the name suggests has water in it and when they turn the lights on it reflects the scenery into the water. Very pretty. This cave is not as complex as Jewel cave yesterday but it seemed to be deeper in the cavern part of it.

Some of the 300 steps!

We had a cuppa in the little tearooms attached to this venue then headed off again to the next one called Mammoth Cave. Mammoth Cave differs from the other two in that they are guided tours and Mammoth is a self guided walk. You get a nice little MP3 player on arrival and headsets and off you go punching in various numbers at marked intervals along the walkway and you get a pretty informative narration along the way to help you understand caves and the formation of them. This one is not as complex a system as the other two but the cavern size of it is definately mammoth! Once again a beautiful experience and only 176 ladder style steps to get back to the surface at the end and then surprise surprise you find out you have actually gone under the road during your walk through the cave and now when you are worn out from all those steps you have to keep your wits about you and cross the road between traffic to get back to the starting point!

Mammoth Cave

And they cheated, they did not count the couple of hundred steps through the steep bush to return to the starting point. Still in all it really was a great experience.

When we left the caves system we went to the Margaret River Cheese Factory. A good supply of cheese and lots of tastings and I got some cheese but was a little disappointed that the prices were pretty much the same as in the supermarkets!

When all else fails, eat chocolate! So next stop was the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. Bliss......

We washed that down with a drop or two at one of the many cellar doors just so that we could say we had done the Margaret River Wineries too.

So loaded down with wine, cheese and chocolate we headed back to camp.

Himself then went over the road and walked the entire length of the Busselton Jetty which is 1.8kms long. He was there and back in under an hour and that included time to chat to some of the many fishermen out on the jetty.