Way Away in WA 2023 – Day 51 – Capes, caves and canals

We have moved into the famed Margaret River Region on WA’s south-west coast. The map shows places we intend to visit over the next few days. Cape Naturaliste is the northern most point of Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park that runs down the coastal strip to Cape Leeuwin. The vegetation varies from coastal scrub-heath to large areas of peppermint, banksia, jarrah and karri forest. There is an extensive network of limestone caves.

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse 1903

Whale Lookout Walk through coastal heath

New Holland honeyeaters were enjoying the nectar from the spring flowers.

View from Whale lookout to the tip of Cape Naturaliste. The first peoples here were the Wardandi who called it “Kwirreejeenungup”, meaning “the place with the beautiful view”. In 1801, the French navigator Nicolas Baudin named the cape after the expedition’s second ship the Naturaliste.

Sugarloaf Rock

Coastline near Sugarloaf Rock

Ngilgi Cave entrance and exit – the whole coastline is mostly limestone and has a number of cave systems. There are about 175 documented caves. My other half wasn’t too keen to go underground but she eventually caved in.

There are two chambers. The first is a short steep path down into the Amphitheatre.

Stalactites

Steps leading from the Amphitheatre

The path to the main chamber of the cave system which they call “The Main Chamber”. The path goes down…

…and down. “Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs, in the deep places of the world.” (Gandalf the Grey – Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien.)

In this case, carbon dioxide. The cave CO2 levels are constantly monitored as they can rise. Atmospheric CO2 is about .04%. Levels in the cave can reach over .2% but today was about .09% which we were told was enough to produce a slightly elevated heart rate.