Since we arrived on Thursday the weather here has been pretty wet and cool so haven’t been able to get and explore too much. We have certainly experienced variances in weather since we crossed the border into SA. Seeing what is happening in the other eastern states and the variances we have been through WA does seem to have more consistent weather and doesn’t seem to get the extreme weather patterns. We are looking forward to get to some consistently warm days don’t know where that will be. So we decided to do a tour to the Engelbrecht Cave in the middle of the town site. It was very interesting. The cave length is 700m with the majority either filled with water or forming lakes. Buildings including 19 houses have been built above the cave as well as roads. The thickness of limestone from the cave roof to the surface varies from 17-40m. It is constantly monitored for movement. The water level remains fairly constant and about every 100 years the cave fills to the top with water and then subsides. Over the last 8 years it has dropped 2m. There is no life whatsoever in the cave due to the 100% humidity and nothing for creatures to feed on. The temperature inside the cave is a constant 16 degrees. We could only get to look in two chambers that are dry and to see the rest you need to be a certified cave diver. On average they get 400 divers a year diving in the caves. The access points for the divers are fairly steep and you would have to be keen to carry all your gear with you. The water depth varies from 1-10m and water temperature is 10-15 degrees, so dry suits recommended. In the second chamber the diver access gap to squeeze through is about 1m and the initial water depth is 1m and there is no room for error as on the cave floor is volcanic ash and if it is kicked with a fin it is like talcum powder and will smother vision in no time in fact even with powerful torches you wouldn’t be able to see your hand in front of your face. As there is no current in the water it takes 3-4 weeks to settle. Hence this cave is only for the very experienced. It was believed there was also no life in the water, however recently divers came up with a creature that looks like a centipede. No one could work out how it could survive and research showed it has been found in other caves overseas and the centipedes feed off each other. They blend into the limestone and are very hard to find which is why they haven’t been seen before. The history of the cave is that a german called Carl Engelbrecht bought the site in 1885 and built a whisky distillery believing the hole in the ground was a well and consequently he dumped his waste down there as well as the local butcher, townsfolk even human waste ended up down there. In 1964 the local council starting looking into the cave for tourist potential. Four divers braved 100 years of rubbish and dug through it to enter a dark muddy tunnel and discovered a relatively small lake with a very silty floor that was 17 feet deep. They reporting it wasn’t suitable for tourist development. In 1979 there was renewed interest and the Lions Club decided to beautify the cave and started cleaning it up, it took 6 years. The cave was opened for tourism in 1986. Some trivia for you, there are 600 caves in Australia and the south east has over 250 of them.
This afternoon the weather picked up and we went for a walk around the Crater Lakes Recreational Park. Very well and nicely maintained park that is situated around the 4 craters, Blue Lake, Valley Lake, Leg of Mutton Lake and Browne Lake. Leg of Mutton and Browne Lakes are dry lakes. The parkland covers a huge area and included a wildlife park, picnic areas. many lookouts over the lakes and lots of walking trials and it is so green! We walked up a very very steep track to Centenary Tower, 190m above sea level and got some great view of the town and Valley Lake. Later we stopped at Blue Lake to take photos. Blue Lake is very interesting in that during the summer months it turns a vivid blue and during winter is a green grey colour. When we do the tour we’ll fill you in on how this phenomenon occurs and post some more pics.
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