20150902 WA The Jewel Cave to Cape Leeuwin, Augusta

20150902  The Jewel Cave is the biggest show cave in Western Australia with three massive chambers.  It is also home to one of the longest straw stalactites, a tapering structure hanging like icicle from the roof of the cave, formed of calcium salt deposited by dripping water, found in any tourist cave in the world and it was discovered in 1967.

Our tour guide takes us on our decent into the cave, 42 metres deep and 1.9 kilometres long stopping on each platforms for a summary.

This beauty is called the “Water Fall” and just the mere size of this crystals is quite spectacular.

Helictites are contorted depositional speleothems which grow in any direction, seemingly defying gravity.  They occur in many forms from tiny filaments to thick, antler-like forms and are formed from calcite.

The Organ Pipes is noted for its incredible formation, such as the longest stalactite found in any tourist cave.

And this is a possum that apparently fell through a hole and couldn’t find its way out and after some very detailed test found it to be over 400 years old, “believe it or not”.

On our climb back to the top I noticed the rock formation with huge cracks all that you didn’t notice on our descent and I gotta tell ya it freaked me out a bit but I made it to the top in one piece.

On to Augusta to see where the two oceans meet and Leeuwin Lighthouse which we managed to get in for free as Nobby knew a guy that once worked there so his mate let us in, and no we didn’t expect it.

Here we stand at Cape Leeuwin which marks the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean.

Keeper’s Cottages Built in 1895-6 to accommodate the three lighthouse keepers who were required for the continuous operation of the lighthouse and to fulfill the day to day operational duties and to insure efficiency in case of sickness or emergence.

The lighthouse was constructed in 1859/6, several shipwrecks had been reported in the area after the first settlers arrived in 1830 and after some debates it was finally completed.

This was the destroyer that went down in 1945 after a rogue wave hit it causing it to heel and throw ten sailors overboard never to be found, they were only 11 miles off Cape Leeuwin.

He just can’t help himself, sick! sick! sick! anyway the reason for the cow is, in the old days a small herd of cattle used to roam around in this area so this was constructed to remember them and from march to June 1010, 85 cows were positioned across the Margaret River Region as part of the world’s largest public art event ‘Cow Parade’.