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Published: March 24th 2015
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Greg loves caves and in our travels if there is a cave nearby Greg will be itching for a visit. Naracoorte is famous for its World Heritage listed caves and in particular for the fossil beds that have been discovered there, so they were a must do item on our itinerary.
A relatively early start meant that we were at the caves in time for the first tour of the day. Three caves had guided tours, with the tours times arranged so that you could go from one cave tour to the next. Booking all three gave us free access to another self-guided cave and the fossil museum.
Alexandra cave was first and we joined another couple for the tour. With such a small group, and with the other couple being so quiet, we virtually had the guide to ourselves. Alexandra cave is a series of linked chambers and contains columns, shawls and straws, all the formations that you expect to see in an active cave.
Next a short drive took us to Victoria Fossil cave. If you only tour one cave it is sure to be the fossil cave so we
were not surprised to find the tour had a group of 17 people. This cave is unusual in that it is made up of a labyrinth of passages and crawls heading in all directions and stretching out for 4.5km! In many places the floor had been dug out to allow us to walk. The original crawls were often only 30 to 45 cm high. Exploring this cave must have been very challenging. In fact it was so difficult that the actual fossil chamber was only discovered 60 years after the cave had been opened to the public! The fossil bed is 60 x 20 metres and up to 5 metres deep. It contains bones dating back 500,000 years.
When we arrived for the final tour of Bat and Blanche caves we found we were the only couple and we had the same guide as the first tour, so she gave us a personalised experience. You do not enter Bat cave but view it via a number of infra-red cameras, so as not to disturb the bats. You would not want to enter anyway as massive piles of bat dung cover the floor and the smell is overwhelming.
Blanche cave has been open to the public for a long time. Greg remembers going into it as a child when there were no controls at all. Then they tentatively inched their way into the dark away from the light of the opening. Dad held Greg’s hand and eventually decided to go no further as who knew what pits might be hiding in the dark. Now as we toured deeper we found a five metre deep pit where early settlers had mined bat dung. Many years ago Dad definitely made the safe decision. One feature of this cave was a huge chamber where the previous night they had staged an opera for 250 guests.
Our lunch break at the cave café saw us enjoying yummy burgers and a lovely local wine, while we watched blue wrens hopping around us.
One final self-guided tour of the Wet cave completed our day.
If ever you are in Naracoorte we can recommend a visit to the caves, but allow plenty of time.
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