Caves, Trees and the Turn for Home

If you consider our journey as a big triangle, with home in the east, North West cape in the North West, then Cape Leeuwin, being Australia’s most south-westerly point marks our turn for home. It also marks the official meeting point of the Indian and Southern Oceans. So even if it didn’t ever really feel like it, today marked some milestones.

Fires don’t last overnight here. I’m not sure if it is the wood, or if it is just too cold, but there really is no point trying to revive a fire in the morning. After checking that was the case here, we settled for pancakes on the gas in the camp kitchen. A fine day had us up and packed (even though nobody would move because of the cold) and down at Lake Cave in time for the 9:30 tour.

The whole of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste cape-to-cape area is a 100km long limestone ridge, some 4-5km wide sitting on very geologically stable granite-based foundations. Our tour guide said if you don’t like earthquakes, Augusta near the south end is apparently the place to be in the world. With such limestone and stability, caves can grow unimpeded and this area is riddled with them, with several open for tours. Lake Cave is notable because it is actively growing, contains water throughout and has a dramatic entrance created when the roof grew too close to the surface, creating a hole some 40m deep when it collapsed. Containing many of the usual cave features, an unusual one was the presence of suspended columns. These are created when the original sand base of the cave, on which stalagmites grew into columns, was washed away leaving the base of the columns suspended from the roof.

Leaving the cave we went down to the coast to look at the local fishing and surfing haunts. No action today, but the warning signs and the presence of tie-off points for fishermen gives you an idea of the dangers involved. From there it was down a scenic drive through karri forests just south. Everything here is much closer, with the scenery changing dramatically depending on the distance from the coast and elevation and the proximity to the limestone ridge. These trees were our first karri and coming over the ridge into the valley of tall trees was magical, with someone even having made a road sign to suit.

South through Augusta and onto Cape Leeuwin, named by Flinders in honour of the Dutch ship which charted the area some 200 years earlier. Notable for the reasons above, for us it was a working lighthouse, mainland Australia’s tallest, and open for tours. Being such a stunning day we overcame the price hurdle and went on in. Twenty-two ships went down in the area before sufficient gold was extracted from the Swan River colony to afford a lighthouse in1895. Since completion, only one more ship has been lost.

The area now shares its role as a working, but automatic lighthouse, living museum and tourist attraction, all coupled together with heritage listing. Funds raised from tourists go to improve the amenity for tourists, but at the same time maintaining the authenticity of the history, but above all, keeping the light functioning.

We need to start making tracks now we are pointed homewards. To start this we headed east to Alexandria Bridge to camp on the Blackwood River tonight. We have about 10 days left to complete WA, so some planning is now required.

Stay tuned…

p.s. Can anyone guess what this is?