Western Australia - Pt 4

After a look around the Margaret River wine district (still raining), we visited Lake Cave. It's a small cave but has one of only two (?) suspended table formations in the world. The reflections were amazing.

Unfortunately, this cave is right at the bottom of a large doline (hole in the ground) which meant a descent of 350 steps to get to the cave entrance. And what goes down, must go back up!

View from the top showing the staircase - the cave entrance is the blacker section in the middle.

Did I mention it was still raining? It absolutely poured down as we got to the top and we were drenched by the time we got to the car. Luckily it was only a short drive to Augusta where we spent our next night.

The following morning (still raining), we visited the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, on the most south-westerley tip of Australia, where the Indian and Southen Ocean meet. Because we hadn't climbed enough steps the day before, we climbed the 186 steps to the top of the lighthouse!

The view from the top was spectacular but VERY windy and cold! I went around the exposed side with the camera and had to hold on as the wind was forcing me backward!

I loved the spiral staircase though!

Another cow welcoming us to the area!

Nearby the lighthouse, is an old waterwheel that used to supply water to the light house keeper's cottage. It's now calcified making it look like it's carved from stone. This was something I really wanted to show Billy as I have a photo I took of the waterwheel when we visited when I was about his age!

We had a big drive for the rest of the day, and with it being too wet to do much, the only place we stopped at was the Valley of the Giants tree-top walk at Denmark. They've built a metal board walk 40 m above ground to allow you to walk among huge Tingle Trees (don't you love the name of them - to me they sound like they should be in Harry Potter or Dr Seuss books!) A type of Eucalyptus, they are native to this area, can grow to 75m high and 24m around the base and live for 400 years.

We stopped for the night at Denmark where we were visited through the night by a mob of kangaroos grazing on the caravan park lawns!