Friday 30 November 2012

Wombeyan Caves



We have spent the last 3 days visiting Wombeyan Caves. You can visit the cave's websites here and here. We decided to take the rather scary Wombeyan Caves Road to the Caves. You can find plenty of images on Google of the state of repair of this road.  Fortunately the road has just been regraded and we made it along fine past all the sheer drops hundreds of meters to the side of the single lane dirt road.


View from the road

View from the road

We stayed in the old post office cottage which was frankly - old! It even came with its own outside toilet. We took 2 guided cave tours; the Kooringa Cave and the Wollondilly Cave. The formations were amazing as was our guide. We were even lucky enough to have the tour completely to ourselves for the Wollondilly Cave. We also took the self guided tour through the Fig Tree cave which eventually opens out at the huge Victoria Arch.

Post Office Cottage

On the way to the caves

On the hill - the caves are underneath us










Lot's wife and the cockatoo


Victoria Arch

Inside Victoria Arch - L for scale

We all also got to hold and examine a piece of stalagmite which is translucent when you shine a torch through it.


We also had time to do a couple of bush walks. One along the Mares Forest Creek Track led us to the Tinted Cave and a chilly swimming hole. The waterfall track took us past an old marble quarry and along to a small waterfall. There was plenty of wildlife along the walks and around the visitors centre including kangaroos and wallabys, bats, birds and butterflies and other insects.

Entering the Tinted Cave

Looking onto the creek from inside the cave

Building a dam








Bush walks are exciting when you're this tall!


The guides are planning to open up some other areas of the caves, along with evicting the brown snake from the Junction Cave, so there is still lots that we haven't seen yet and I expect we'll be back soon.


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