Friday, July 9, 2010

Wednesday 7/7/2010 Koonalda to near Cocklebiddy

(Koonalda to near Cocklebiddy)
Wow. Sunrise over the Nullarbor, with one lonely tree.
We were camped right next to a massive hole. The climb in was far too difficult and dangerous for the kids, I even froze momentarily in one section.
So the kids waited on the surface while Col and I went caving. Inside info is a valuable thing.
After finding the spot you can squeeze through under the caged off entry, we roughly new the direction and length of time needed (about 30 minutes) to get to the underground lakes. Wow!!! Absolutely massive caverns.
We came across old pumping equipment, then crystal clear lakes. We explored only one section of three. More time, better lighting and a rope and harness would be fantastic.
Once we found the lake I only wished Jordan and Jack were there, and my photography teacher.
Andrew and Nell were kind enough to wait around to make sure we returned safely. I got his card. I think I will have to buy his time lapse shot. It is fantastic, plus he has been so good to us. A lovely couple. I'm glad we ran into them.
We left here at 1100hrs and drove through old Koonalda homestead. It was active from 1938 to 1988 as a fuel stop on the old Ayre Highway. Now a ghost town and car grave yard. The homestead ran off the water pumped from Koonalda Caves.
Had lunch viewing the spectacular Bunda Cliffs (90m high). The weather was perfect.
The $2 shower at BorderVillage turned out to be $3 each., but worth it. Jordan and Jack bought a stuffed kangaroo each.
A man is now searching the car for fruit, vegetables or honey. We are too prepared!
Jordan and Jack had fun playing at Eucla Telegraph Station, pretending it was a fort. It is gradually being covered by the sand dunes which became unstable after rabits ate the vegetation.
We then pulled into reststop 13 near Cocklebiddy to camp instead of inland as we ended up doing that last night.
It was a lovely big parklike stop. A few other campers, but well dispersed through the trees. We again joined some other campers at their fire and had a lovely chat with an older couple from Perth.

2 comments:

Hassells said...

Hello!!!!!

That cave sounds really
interesting. Especially
the river creek thing...


I wish I was there!
From Alicia Hassell

Jurassicnev said...

Hi Cheryl i explored Abracurrie cave a few years back and just came across this cave after searching for indigenous sites which is another of my interests.
I just wanted to ask if you needed any special gear to get into this cave. Thanks in advance Neville Hayes.