Now and Then, Here and There: Margaret River Region Part 2

HAMELIN BAY

We had 4 nights here and did not get close to going in the water. We had heard that Hamelin Bay was the place of a spectacular calm, blue bay where you swim amongst the sting rays and lay on the beach soaking up the sun!! Yeh right! We got sand blasted every time we went to look at the chopped up water where no sting ray wanted to be, it drizzled and was grey for the 4 days. We weren’t really worried because we knew we had all of Easter to come back and see it in the right condition and we did just that J(pictures next post). With the weather being the way it was we did our cave and light house tours from here so we still had a great time.

Hamelin Bay's most pictured spot!!
This was taken on the last day we had at Hamelin and
this was the best day we had while camped here.

LAKES CAVE

This was our first cave and what a great introduction. This is an hour guided tour, our guide Jill was very informative and good with the kids. This cave is at the bottom of a 15 meter huge sink hole, which would have been the original roof of the cave millions of years ago. I like the story as to how this cave was found; in 1867 a 16 year old Francis Bussel, daughter of the Pioneer Alfred Bussel (which a lot of the towns and roads are named after) was out riding on her horse, she came across this huge sink hole, she made her way back home all excited and told her family about it. The next day she brought them out to have a look at it but couldn’t find it. 30 years later a group of men including Francis’s brother were out specifically looking for caves and they found it. Tim Connely was one of the men on this ride and he entered the cave by abseiling down the sink hole then using a lantern entered the cave through the same entrance we use today. 1901 the cave was opened to the public.

This cave is the deepest cave in the South West; it is 62 meters deep the chamber is 82 meters long and it constantly has water in it which is fed from an underground stream. With the cave being a “wet” cave the stalactites (hanging from the ceiling hanging on tight) and the stalagmites (on the ground growing up cause they might reach the ceiling) were glistening in the light giving the cave a very pretty look. The main feature of this cave is the ‘suspended table’ which is two large columns coming down from the ceiling which are joined at the bottom by what they call a flow stone, the unique thing is that this is all suspended above water. With the lighting in the cave the reflection off the water gives such an amazing appearance flipping everything around and making the water look very deep when in fact it is only up to your knees. We really enjoyed this cave and even the 400plus stairs you have to climb in and out of.

This is the way down to Lakes Cave entrance.

The suspended table. You can see the reflection
in the water and you do have to look hard to see that it
is actually floating in the air.

MAMMOTH CAVE

This cave is a self guided tour which means you get a set of head phones and an MP3 player and as you go along you press the corresponding number on your player to hear about the area you are standing in; the boys liked this idea. This cave is a seasonal cave meaning it has a river through it that only runs in winter and the rest of the time it is very dry. The opening is large and easily accessible which meant many animals lived in it so they have found many fossils and bones dating back many years. There is a good example of one still in the wall to show you. At first you don’t think the cave is very big, but as you start walking in it just keeps on going and going and you go up quite high as well. The decorations are not as graceful as the Lake Cave but it does have a huge Shaw (like a red see through rippled flag hanging from the ceiling) hidden away down the back. We couldn’t get over the size of this cave.

All kitted up to go into Mammoth cave

Some of the "decorations" in the cave.

This gives you a good idea of how high you go up.

Can you see the crocodile!

The way out of the cave, lots more steps!

JEWEL CAVE

Another amazing and huge cave which you see by going on a tour which takes you about and hour and you climb 500 steps in total. This cave would be the most photographed and they are still doing a big upgrade with the lighting and entrance to the cave. This cave holds the second longest “straw” (a hollow 10mm round stalactite which has water dripping through it) in the world; this one is 5.4 meters long, and you have to see it to believe it, wow. There are many other amazing features in this cave and you can easily see why people come to see it. We were delighted having done the three caves it really gives you a great overall experience of the different types of “decorations” caves can have.

This is a column which has a Karri tree root winding down it, the root is 42 meters long.

This photo shows the "Bridal Veil" on the right with a huge amount of Flow stone beside it. It was called this because back in the day when there were no rules where to go, a lady actually got married here. When you look up in the middle of the photo it shows what they call the " Karri Tree Forest". Beside the Karri Tree forest you make out the platform where we come down from.

These are what they call the Organ Pipes.

CAPE LEEUWIN LIGHTHOUSE

This Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse on Australia mainland, it stands at 56 meters tall and was built in 1896. All the metal parts in the lighthouse; stairs, pipes, light workings etc were made in England and bought over and they are still the exact same items in use today. The same company that made the steel work bought the men over from England to build the lighthouse. They cut each stone by hand from a nearby bay now called Quarry Bay. Each stone is a different size and numbered in order. The walls at the bottom are about 5 stones thick and it tapers up to 2 stones thick at the top. We had a great day to visit the lighthouse; it was blowing 30 nautical knots and drizzling so when we went out to walk around the balcony we had to hold on tight.Our tour guide said that we are seeing the reason why the lighthouse was built when you look out at the choppy sea you cannot see where the reefs are and that is why there are many ship wrecks out at this point. It was only around 1996 that the lighthouse turned to using electricity for the light and only a few years before that when there was no longer a family living on site.