On Friday, November 18th, Mum, Dad and I checked out of the Hamelin Bay Holiday Park and set off for nearby
Jewel Cave, situated between Augusta and Margaret River on Western Australia's south-west coast.
Jewel Cave is WA's largest tourist cave, 1.9km long and up to 42m deep. Only 40% of it has been developed for tourism, but what we saw was spectacular! At the start of the tour we descended into a large cavern containing hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites (including one of the longest
straw stalactites found in any tourist cave in the world - an impressive 580cm). We also saw the entrance used in 1957 by the cave's first explorer - a hole formed by a decayed tree root. (Years later, this man's daughter was allowed to hold her wedding ceremony in Jewel Cave. How awesome!)
We then walked through different "rooms" in the cave, seeing various stone formations - many of which had names inspired by their appearance, such as The Waterfall, The Shawl, The Pipe Organ, The Camel, and The Jewellery Box! Lighting was used very cleverly - one section of straw stalactites was lit very prettily in slowly changing colours, and one formation that looked like coral was lit by a swirling blue light that strongly enhanced the underwater feel. Our guide also turned out all the lights so that we could appreciate total darkness for a few moments.
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| The Waterfall (on the left) |
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| Skeleton of an extinct native animal found in the cave |
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| The Pipe Organ |
So that was Jewel Cave - very impressive!
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| A beehive we spotted outside the cave |
Our next destination was Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point of mainland Australia, where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. First we visited an old wooden water wheel that was built in 1895 to supply water to the builders of the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. The wheel is now encrusted with calcified lime, so it looks part wood and part stone. It has a pretty stunning location too!
Next we visited the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. Along with Jewel Cave, this was probably my favourite tourist attraction of the trip... I think spending my childhood reading Famous Five books has given me a lasting fascination with lighthouses!
The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse was built in 1895. The grounds contain three lighthouse keepers' cottages, and the light was totally manually operated until 1982. It was one of the last lighthouses in the world to change from its clockwork mechanism and kero burner to electricity. The tour guide who took us up the lighthouse's seven floors and 182 steps told us there had only been one shipwreck since the lighthouse was built (compared to many before that), and everyone aboard the ship survived - thanks to the quick-thinking lighthouse keeper, who lit a fire on the beach to guide the lifeboats to safety.
Here are some photos taken before we climbed the lighthouse...
And here are some photos from our climb. Mum's hanging on to Dad at the top because she wasn't too keen on being up that high. We were very proud of her!
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| View from a lighthouse window |
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| The old clockwork mechanism that turned the light |
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| Looking up at the rotating light above us |
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| View from the balcony |
Later on we stopped in Margaret River, one of WA's most well-known food and wine tourism regions. It was also the hub of that weekend's 21st National Harley Owner's Group Rally, so the town was full of bikes and bikies! We stayed long enough to buy some fudge and eat some ice cream, and then continued on to Busselton, where we stayed the night at a free camp a little way out of town.
To be continued!
