13th March 2008

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13th March 2008
We slept late for us this morning and did not get up until 8-30am. It had rained heavily in the night and although it had stopped by the time we got up it was still overcast and very windy. The temperature has also dropped today by 10 degrees from 34 to 24.
We managed to speak to Marta and the grandchildren in Canada on skype this morning before setting out for the day. It was lovely to see them and to know William and Hannah had been receiving the postcards I had been sending them.
There are about 90 known limestone caves in this area so our first destination today was Lake Cavern. It has a very spectacular entrance. The cave entrance was once a very big underground chamber but the roof had collapsed leaving a very large hole in the ground, which made a spectacular entrance hole. The cave was not particularly deep 65 metres below the surface nor particularly long perhaps one kilometre. The limestone formations inside however were incredible, the best we have ever seen. There were stalagmites, stalagtites, calcite straws, calcite curtains etc etc. I do not not think that even in my caving days I have ever seen such a profusion of different formations in one cave. They were very well lit and once again the young guide was excellent. He showed all the cave had to offer then turned out the lights and let us experience the silence and deep darkness before he began to play his native pipe which was really haunting in the gloom with just some of the formations lit up. The camera could never capture the atmosphere of that underworld. The aborigines would never go under ground into the caves although they knew they were there as they believe bad spirits live d there. The elders visit the caves in their trances and describe them in paintings.
Back on the surface we were ready for food and as we were in the wine growing area we decided to visit a winerey as some of them have restaurants and do tours. The first one we tried specialised in port wines so we sampled severals wines and then bought 2 ports to take back to Perth. At the end of this year they will no longer be able to call them port wines, as only those wines made in Porto, Portugal will be able to call their wines Port.
Will they be as good as the authentic port, we shall have to wait and see. That winerey did not do food so we went to the recommended one, Leeuvin Estates.
It was a magnificant place set in 1600 acres of beautiful couintryside, some cleared for the vines and the rest left with huge eucalyptus forest trees and grass palms. They hold a huge concert every year in February where some very famous people have appeared. They do a range of wines called their Arts range and an artist is comissioned every year to do some art work which is then made into the label of the year for their best wines. Some of them are gorgeous (the wines taste pretty good too) and I took some pictures of the labels. The owners have four children and they started a range called their sibling range and comissioned an artist to do some art work. He did four frog pictures for them to choose from but they liked them all and I took pictures of them and we tasted the wine. Yummy!!!!( All whites)
We saw behind the scenes in the factory where the grapes are proceessed and fermented, some in the oak casks. Then we started on the tasting and as Bob and I were the only people doing the tour we had very personal service. Despite our guide's efforts to sell us the most expensive we tasted ( $89 a bottle) we opted for a very nice white sauvigon blanc semillion and a shiraz that we had enjoyed with our excellent lunch.
On the way back to cabin we passed a field with lots of kangaroos grazing and sleeping so of course we had to stop!!! I took some pictures but they would not let you get very close before they hopped away.
We went down to the sea shore to try and get a coffee but it is wild and unspoilt by shops or cafes only some very smart holiday homes.It is a beautiful coastline with coastal walks which we shall not have time to do as we are back up to Perth early tomorrow.
An early night after another fabulous day. Shall we ever settle back home!

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Comments

[Lucy]

Whole new trip planned
I should think that from all the things you didn't quite get to do you could have another whole trip planned! Say hi and bigs hugs to Aunt Kath and Uncle Bill they look to be on great form and have a great party.