Margaret River Caves

Because the region is settled on limestone, the area is full of caves. About 6 of them are open to the public and we chose to do both the Lake and Jewel Caves. I really wanted to do Giants Cave. It sounded awesome - you get given hard hats and torches, and no guide or anything, and make your way through a cave where you have to scramble over rocks and squeeze through tight spots. It's the deepest tourist cave I think, at 82m, and Tilda was too worried about the depth of it so we didn't do it. I am slightly disappointed but it would have been worse to pay the money, get part way through and have a freak out. It just gives me another reason to come back here, without kids, one day.

Lake Cave was pretty, but I am a bit disappointed we chose that one and wonder if we'd have been better off doing Mammoth Cave. It is so hard to choose from the brochures and we chose Lake Cave because it is the only one with water in it. The reflections in it were very pretty. We have seen some caves at Jenolan, so it's not all brand new to us. Lake Cave has 3 main features:

1. you drop down a limestone docline (a collapsed cave roof) 300 steps to the entry (which had me wondering if there would be any further collapse of the cave which is not a good thought when you're about to go 60m underground!).
2. it is filled with straws. These amazing stalactites are hollow, just like drinking straws, and have incredibly thin walls. The roof is filled with them and looks pretty darn cool.
3. there is a suspended table of calcite floating over the surface of the underground lake. It formed when the cave floor was higher from flowstone and 2 stalactites and I have to admit, it did look very cool.

There were other nice little limestone features like the brain coral and fairy pool, but I'm not sure I think it was worth it. The Jewel Cave is filled with the same types of calcite formations.

It's a long walk down

That's not even the entrance, there's about another 100-120 steps to go

This table just "hangs" above the water and weighs about 5 tonnes

The fairy pool

The brain coral

Jewel Cave is the largest show cave in WA. It has 3 chambers and is filled with a range of different formations. It is probably the best cave I have seen, including the ones I've seen at Jenolan Caves. This one I can happily recommend as worthwhile. We had a great tour guide named Tom, who put Matilda in charge of leading the way. She had a great time setting off into the different parts of the cave, leading the way. We saw straws, one of which was over 5m long, there was a fantastic example of flow stone, which they call the frozen waterfalls, stalactites galore and helictites, which are stalactites that grow sideways and twisted, plus lots more. There was so much to take in and so much to absorb.

The frozen waterfall

Coral or 'popcorn' calcite

Pendulums

The drive through Boranup Forest to the caves and from one cave to the next is stunning. I am really missing having a good camera, my phone camera just doesn't capture the colours, depth etc as well as my trusty little point and shoot did. I am looking forward to Albany so I can buy a new one.