It was another easy day of driving with just 106 kilometres from Mataranka to Katherine so we were in no rush to pack up and leave and didn't get away from Mataranka until 9.30am. The Sturt Highway seemed to be packed with vans heading both north and south although every van park tells us that the tourist season doesn't start until May. I don't know about that. Fuel prices don't seem to have stopped anyone and as Philip pointed out, even with these higher prices it's probably not going to add that much to our overall trip.
As we drove north along the highway storm clouds were gathering in front of us. Oh how we wish for a downpour of rain that will wash the top of our van. At least the outside looks fairly clean after it's bath at Boroloola.
The speed limit in the Northern Territory along the open highway is 130 kmh and I have to say most vehicles are travelling at this speed if they are not towing a van like us. The road trains are also much longer with four trailers behind them, and thank goodness we haven't had to pass any of them. I don't think we will ever need to as we are usually travelling a lot slower than them.
The vegetation on both sides of the road is timbered with the majority of trees being gums. Around 15kms from Katherine we noticed large stacks of the giant square hay bales that by the look of it had just recently been cut. Further on we came to the turnoff to the RAAF Base, Tindal that has been here for a very long time. I'd go as far as saying that it was initially set up in WW2 but don't quote me on that.
As soon as we arrived at the Boab Caravan Park in Katherine, I rang our friends Pam and Raymond but as luck would have it they are currently at their property just outside Toowoomba. They will be flying home on Sunday so we said we will catch up with them when we return to Katherine on our way to Kununurra. Pam gave me a long list of things to see and do while we are in Katherine. We are going to be here for four days as we have the car booked into the auto electrician on Friday morning to have a couple of small things changed so we have lots of time up our sleeve.
According to Pam at the top of the list of things to do was Cutta Cutta Caves around 30km south of Katherine. We had noticed the signpost as we were heading north and had already said we would go back and as we had nothing planned this afternoon we decided to not wait and just head there. As we approached the information building we noticed that there were no hills in sight so we then realised that the caves were underground. This wasn't a surprise as we know that the under the surface of this vast territory it is like honeycomb with large sink holes opening up in many places.
We paid our entrance fee and had to wait 10 minutes as it is a guided tour and we had to wait for the tour guide to return. Tours run every hour from 9am to 3pm. We set off down the path towards the caves. We had another tour guide with us as a snake was spotted in the very deepest part of the cave that very morning and he was the "snake catcher/chaser". We were told when we made our purchase that we wouldn't be going to the very end of the cave because of the rogue snake. I was secretly pleased. I dislike snakes very much.
At the entrance to the cave I was actually taken aback at how far down we had to go. The path down into the depths of the caves is well marked and lit and a mesh walkway the whole length means that the floor of the cave is not damaged in any way. We were also asked to not touch any of the walls of the cave as our hands would leave a grease mark that would harm the cave walls. Our tour guide turned the lights off at one stage and the cave is absolutely pitch dark so we know that aborigines never inhabited this cave. Even using fire torches would have been impossible as there is no where for the smoke to escape.
The deeper we went into the cave the more humid it became to the point that it was almost airless. This is the perfect environment for all the stalagmites (the upward) and stalactites (the downward). I was absolutely gobsmacked at this remarkable cave system. It was just so beautiful and so natural. Some of the stalactites shine like crystals and some look like fish tails and others like coral. Our guide was very knowledgeable and interesting and it is indeed amazing how the stalactites are formed with just drips of calcium laden water slowly crystallising. They are very slow at growing and the giant stalactites that we were looking at would have taken a very long time to grow, hundreds of thousands of years if not millions. It is indeed mind boggling. The guide showed us one new stalactite that was around one inch long and as thick as a pencil and it had taken 70 years to get to this length so you go figure......
The cave was found by accident by a man called John Smith who was driving a mob of cattle from Mataranka to Katherine and when he arrived at Katherine he found that half his mob was missing. When he backtracked he found them all milling around the entrance to the cave. The moisture was so high that the cattle thought that they were near water.
The guides took us as far into the cave as was safe, without running into the rogue snake, so we turned around and made our way back towards the entrance. The exit was even more intriguing as we noticed things that we hadn't seen on the way in. What a brilliant place and I was actually sad to exit the cave. At the exit we were shown a path that took us over the top of the cave and we stopped at various information signs along the path to read about this amazing cave system.
Tomorrow we plan to drive out to Katherine Gorge and Edith Falls. We had thoughts of kayaking through the gorge but our friends asked us to reconsider this as this is crocodile country. With an inflatable kayak. I don't think so.......
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