This morning we are back tracking a little, as the Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park is South of Katherine, just off the Stuart Highway. It is only 30 km, so no real problem. The caves were originally discovered by a stockman, whilst looking for a few stray cattle. He aptly named the Smith's caves. However the indigenous people, the Jawoyn people renamed the caves Cutta Cutta, meaning many stars. Our tour guide told us the origin of the name came from the presence of sparkling calcium carbonate crystals in the caves, and a healthy bat population. The dreamtime story was that the bats used to take the crystals into the sky and night creating the stars, and take them back to the caves at daybreak, hence the name "many stars".
Our tour is booked for 11am, and they run every second hour. We noticed at 10 am they had squeezed in a bus tour, so I guess if there is enough interest they run hourly.
Arriving at the visitors centre was a bit underwhelming.
Staffed by 2 women who are also the guides, is a low key kiosk, you can buy drinks, ice creams and a few shirts and souvenirs. The coffee machine was concealed under a cover, so obviously not functioning.
There were some interesting information panels around the walls, one explaining that these caves host a small blind shrimp which is not found anywhere else in Australia, and the only other place in the World it is found is Madagascar.
Whilst we were the first there for the 11am tour, it gave us the opportunity to do a 20 minute walk through a tropical savannah forest. There was some interesting info on a few display panels along the way.
It was a far from attractive forest as the harsh climate extremes here must make survival an achievement on its own.
The Kurrajong tree was in limbo, having not yet lost its leaves and too early for flowering
We could clearly see the orchid
The Ironwood tree was also pretty unattractive but it seems has many uses
Grreen plums weren't in season either
We have seen these grey limestone structures forvthe last few hundred km heading North and In have been a bit intrigued as to why they are this deep grey colour. It seems the reason is bushfires or burning off, which have discoloured these normally off white structures.
The trail did highlight the harshness of this environment, and it filled in 20 minutes. By the time we got back the crowd was starting to arrive. We ended up with about 16 people on our tour, which was run by a young French Guide who obviously works for NT National Parks.
The Tour waiting room
At 11am the group headed off along a bush track for about 400 metres before arriving at the cave entrance.
The Cave Entrance
It is a steep descent into the caves which are not particularly well lit. We are also told that there were never any aboriginal artefacts recovered from these caves. The theory is that they are so poorly ventilated, that occupation would have led to suffocation.
The view of the steep entry into the caves
Compared to many of Australia's great limestone caves, this one does not have the massive structures or huge caves that you see in many others. The interesting part is how these caves are interconnected with other systems ion the NT. There are many tunnels that flow off from the base of the cave system. One larger one wherte inflows and outflows were noticed by scientists. They added a red dye to this tunnel water flows to see where the water goes. Two weeks later it turned up at the Katherine Thermal Springs.They have since established that the thermal springs in Mataranka/ Bitter Springs are part of the same system.
Here are a few photos of the cave formations.
This one was a bit unique
The passage through the caves included a couple of tight pinch points, that a few struggled with and lighting was not terrific. The big surprise was how hot and humid it was in these caves. The tour ended when the caves descended further getting closer to the water levels. Apparently the resident bats all live in the area beyond the end of the tour.
I think everyone was feeling the humidity and were keen to return to the surface.
With the tour complete, we were encouraged to find our way back to the visitors centre, asv the guide had to leave last to "turn out the lights"
It suited us to move on and we headed back to Katherine. Our first thought was to go into town, get essential groceries, top up our cellar at BWS and return tom the caravan park. A timing issue changed our mind and we headed directly back tom the caravan park. The obstacle was BWS only opens between 2pm and 8pm. So we had lunch back at the van where we took the time to have a last look at what fresh foods you can take in WA. A rapid change to our shopping plan followed.
Fresh vegetables were off the shopping list.
Fortunately, the queue at BWS was minimal, and we walked in. We decide to stock up, as from here on we are moving into unknown territory. We expect that purchasing alcohol will be more controlled, so stock up in case.
BWS actually have some great deals and I am sure we have contributed to an outstanding EOFY result for BWS Katherine.
With not much of the afternoon left, I decided to wash the car, whilst Carole worked on converting a lot of our fresh vegetables into an acceptable state to take into WA. Cooking, peeling, freezing or discarding were the options, or eating before hand.
Late in the afternoon, I went down to river near our caravan park to try my hand at fishing. Sadly, no fish were caught and I clearly need to improve my technique. I spoke to a few tradies who were much more skilled than I, but they also had not had any success.
One of the fishing spots I tried, the fireplace and empty cans in the bottom left of the photo would suggest it may be a popular fishing spot
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