Giant's Cave
I have to admit that if i weren't into horses or sitting on my ass watching movies or reading, i'd probably have Adventure Caving on my list of great-and-totally-awesome things to do. i may have even travelled the world doing it. maybe even become particularly brave, donned a wetsuit & done the underwater cave tunnels in south america & borneo & south africa. i find caving FASCINATING. i love the cool darkness, that total alone-ness you feel. it's very very addictive.
i've had a couple of opportunities to go adventure caving in high school. so when sprinklerized was not averse to the idea, i jumped at it again. first, we went to calcardup (i think) cave but the girl there recommended Giant's Cave as the better adventure experience.
so off we raced & arrived with about 2mins to spare before they shut the gates.
Sarah, next to a karri Tree. the region down there is reknowned for them. they're pretty impressive.
o, sarah appears in most of these photos, not just because i LUV her but because you need to have something normal sized to give you an idea of just how impressive, huge and BLACK everything was.
so we traversed this rickety little stairway.
and came out in this big hole in the ground from a collapsed cave. been there so long, some of the trees growing there were big enough to be a couple of hundred years old.
so to the right was this:
and i wanted to go check it out but was foiled by the intense undergrowth. plus, the path CLEARLY pointed us to this on the left:
taken before i entered the bat cave. I guess Giant's Cave isn't a true "adventure" cave, as there were hand rails, ladders, ropes etc & clearly marked pathways, but it was awesome having to find our own way around & being able to stop and check things out. rest of the pics here are taken just with the light from our helmets or with the flash on our cams. i REALLY like how my little CANON handled itself in 100% (and blacker) darkness.
and we climbed down this little stairway, which was on about an 80deg angle. you could feel the temperature drop quite signficantly, and the air gained a lot of humidity as well. at the bottom of the stairs it was pretty freaky looking up and seeing just this patch of light. we walked on and turned a corner and suddenly it was completely black.
no flash - but we had this red light setting on our helmets. cool.
and we entered what's known as "The Ball Room" which is this truly AWESOME cavern - soft, flat ground, a truly huge space.
then we had to climb up a series of 3 ladders, in increasingly close pressed rocks. easy to see someone getting claustrophobia here.
this was probably the most scary part for me as the slope down was quite steep & slippery & you really had to rely on your arm strength to get you down slowly. i do like how they basically said that they've run out of money!~
finally, sunlight.
then a walk through the bush, across caves road (the cave went underneath it) and back to the start.
i was not impressed. and so sweaty! omg.
i've had a couple of opportunities to go adventure caving in high school. so when sprinklerized was not averse to the idea, i jumped at it again. first, we went to calcardup (i think) cave but the girl there recommended Giant's Cave as the better adventure experience.
so off we raced & arrived with about 2mins to spare before they shut the gates.
Sarah, next to a karri Tree. the region down there is reknowned for them. they're pretty impressive.
o, sarah appears in most of these photos, not just because i LUV her but because you need to have something normal sized to give you an idea of just how impressive, huge and BLACK everything was.
so we traversed this rickety little stairway.
and came out in this big hole in the ground from a collapsed cave. been there so long, some of the trees growing there were big enough to be a couple of hundred years old.
so to the right was this:
and i wanted to go check it out but was foiled by the intense undergrowth. plus, the path CLEARLY pointed us to this on the left:
taken before i entered the bat cave. I guess Giant's Cave isn't a true "adventure" cave, as there were hand rails, ladders, ropes etc & clearly marked pathways, but it was awesome having to find our own way around & being able to stop and check things out. rest of the pics here are taken just with the light from our helmets or with the flash on our cams. i REALLY like how my little CANON handled itself in 100% (and blacker) darkness.
and we climbed down this little stairway, which was on about an 80deg angle. you could feel the temperature drop quite signficantly, and the air gained a lot of humidity as well. at the bottom of the stairs it was pretty freaky looking up and seeing just this patch of light. we walked on and turned a corner and suddenly it was completely black.
no flash - but we had this red light setting on our helmets. cool.
and we entered what's known as "The Ball Room" which is this truly AWESOME cavern - soft, flat ground, a truly huge space.
then we had to climb up a series of 3 ladders, in increasingly close pressed rocks. easy to see someone getting claustrophobia here.
this was probably the most scary part for me as the slope down was quite steep & slippery & you really had to rely on your arm strength to get you down slowly. i do like how they basically said that they've run out of money!~
finally, sunlight.
then a walk through the bush, across caves road (the cave went underneath it) and back to the start.
i was not impressed. and so sweaty! omg.