Nullarbor Caves

Today was a very disappointing day in the way of caves. We had missed two caves on the way in yesterday, which we went back and looked for this morning. We found Cocklebiddy Cave, the first one, but there were lots of big unfriendly signs up saying COCKLEBIDDY CAVE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, which was due to heavy rains in January 2006, or that’s what the sign was dated as.

We drove back to the highway and then to the next cave that we missed yesterday. On the way in, we were lucky enough to see a Bustard, which Elliot spotted walking across the road for a while. We followed it for a bit, then drove the rest of the way to the cave. This one was even more unfriendly than the last, with a fence all around the sinkhole and 4 Cave Risk Area signs. We walked around it for a bit, then got back in the car.

We drove for a few kms past the Roadhouse, where we turned off to go to another cave. This one had no Fence, a few cave risk area signs but it had 5m overhangs and a 10m bottom to the start of a “300m walk to the underground lake,” as our very unreliable Nullarbor guide book said.

Tonight we are camped at Weebubbie Cave, which is in essence a 50m diameter sinkhole that is a 10m drop. There was supposedly a ladder, but it is now closed due to heavy rains and rock falls. It is meant to be the famous one with two underground lakes that cavers snorkel in, but the road in doesn’t look like it has carried much traffic for a while. The road really deteriorates after the old repeater.

Hopefully we will have better luck in SA tomorrow, but it is unlikely we are going to do any more caves this holiday.

Louis