Tasmania 8

Wow. It's nearly the end of August, and I still haven't finished recording the details of my trip (which was in February)! I had better get a move on. Although I am finding that writing about the trip is a nice way to relive the experience. Just so long as I finish before I forget all the details :)

The day after arriving in Sheffield, I decided to visit the Mole Creek caves. There are two caves there that are open to the public and with regular tours, Marakoopa and King Solomon. Marakoopa is a "wet" cave, with a large glow worm population, while King Solomon is a dry cave.

When I got to the booking office, I discovered that Marakoopa has two different tours, one of which goes up into the "cathedral" and one of which goes down to a lower chamber with a river. I really enjoy cave tours (I have already been to Hastings caves in southern Tassie, Buchan caves in Victora, and the Waitomo caves in New Zealand), so I decided to take both tours of Marakoopa, plus one of King Solomon.

The first tour of Marakoopa was the glowworm tour. I had seen a glowworm cave before, at Waitomo in New Zealand, but they are always amazing to see. Then we were taken on a tour back further through the cave, where we saw some still ponds. The reflection of the surrounding cave formation in the pools was very beautiful. I took a few photos, but due to the reflection of the flash off the water, you don't get the full impression. Tourists are not allowed to take photos of glowworms (at least not with a flash) as light causes them to stop glowing, so there are no glowworm photos.

The second tour of Marakoopa was the cathedral tour. When we reached the cathedral, it was the largest open space we had seen in the caves. The guide told us that the acoustics were great, and invited us to sing. It took me a while to work up the courage, but I figured I might never have the chance again, so I sang the opening chorus of Agincourt Carol (very sonorous and in Latin). The acoustics were indeed amazing. It sounded like half a choir was singing. I got a spontaneous round of applause from the rest of the group, so I wasn't the only one who thought it sounded great. Now, if I could just manage to sound like that without the help of amazing natural acoustics :). Apparently there are sometimes concerts in the cavern. I would love to hear one some day.

It is remarkable how much difference the lighting used makes to the appearance of a cave. The older lights used in the cave have a yellow tint, which makes the cave formations look yellow. The picture below is taken of a part of the cave lit by newer lights, with a "whiter" color. This is a better impression of the actual colors of the cave.

As a dry cave (no flowing water, and no glow worms), King Solomon's cave had a slightly different look to the Marakoopa cave. Also, a lot of the formations are streaked with tannin, which produces a brown shading in the rock.

I have about another 50 photos, but these give some idea of what the caves look like. If you like caves then I highly recommend a visit to the Mole creek caves.