Today we did a road trip down to Cape Leeuwin and back. Our first stop was Mammoth Cave to collect the four souvenir coins that were there. Just down the road was Lake Cave where they had this suspended platform with a column holding up a rock base above the Lake in the cave. It is 1 of 3 suspended platforms like this in the world but the other 2 are locked up and closed to the public. We stopped at Jewel Cave for lunch and after that we went to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse where the two different seas meet (Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean)! After that we went to the Margaret River Chocolate Company and did plenty of free chocolate tasting.

Editor’s Note: The suspended platform in Lake Cave is particularly rare because of the precise conditions needed for it to form. First flowstone forms over a long period of time around the base of a column (a stalactite and stalacmite combined). This has to be happening on top of sandy rock that can be easily eroded so that later on (thousands of years later) when the water course is changed by rock falls somewhere else in the cave the sand below the flowstone is eroded and the flowstone is left suspended by the column. In this particular case a segment of flowstone broke away leaving the suspended part separated from the main rock creating an island effect. This rock is also special because as well as the column it has a stalactite passing through it which is still forming below the rock base. Stalactites have hollow centres (like the straws from which they originally form) so the calcium carbonate deposits can still pass through the centre of the stalactite and deposit below the level of the suspended table. The tour guide also said the water level in Lake Cave changes a lot over the years depending on the rainfall in the region and this could be seen by tannin stains at different levels on the column and stalactite. At the moment it is dropping because there hasn’t been much rainfall over the past few years. It takes 10 months for rain on the surface to permeate 62 metres through the ground to the cave. Living in the lake inside the cave are microorganisms not found anywhere else on Earth so the lake needs to be protected in order to preserve them.

Captain’s Log: Today we saw Western Australia’s one and only line marking machine busy working on a public holiday trying to catch up on the hundreds of km’s of unmarked highway in WA. Since passing the SA/WA border 12 days ago we have found that any road constructed in WA in the past 12 months or so has no lines marked. We have discussed this at length and we think there is either a shortage of line marking machines or white paint or the line markers union is on strike. We have noted that they have even started running out of the temporary markers they use when there are no lines and the “No Lines Marked” signs.