Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Giants Cave

Sunday 29th March 2009
We were up very early this morning, well Ian was, he was up and in the shower by 6.30am which is unheard of in this house on a Sunday morning.
We had decided that we would go to Dunsborough for breakfast on the way to meet the Scouts down at the Campsite, so we set off early and stopped at a small Café in the centre of Dunsborough, we think it’s called el Vive or something like that and the breakfast was very good.
After breakfast we drove down to the campsite, approximately an hours drive, and arrived there just in time to see the Scouts packing up their tents.
The talking point when we got there, apart from the fact that the Scouts weren’t making too much of an effort to pack their tents up, was Frasers breakfast.
At breakfast this morning the Scouts had Bacon sandwiches, the number of Scouts that had actually turned up for the camp was less than expected, so there was plenty of bacon to go round and more.
Fraser being an avid Carnivore duly took the opportunity to pile up the bacon in between his two slices of bread, what Fraser didn’t realise was that he wasn’t the only one who had his eye on all this surplus bacon.
Fraser picked up his bacon sandwich and just as he was about to take a bite out of it, a Kookaburra flew down out of a tree from where it had been coveting his bacon and nicked a bit of bacon out of the middle of his sandwich before flying off.
Fraser was very philosophical about it and had a laugh about it along with everybody else, when we got home he filled out his Gun Licence Application, not that he’s one to hold grudges.
After the tents and trailer had been packed, which seemed to take forever because all the Scouts had been awake all night either talking to each other, or listening to one of Frasers stories, we headed for Giants Cave.
Giants Cave is to all intents and purposes just another cave system that is open to tourists, the difference between this one and any of the many others that we have ever been to, is that there are no fancy lights, no Guides to lead the way and tell you a bit about the place, just someone at the ticket office who gives you a Hard Hat and Torch, and tells you to stay between the ropes.
You are not allowed to go outside the marked pathway, but there is nobody there to stop you. It is up to the individual to use their common sense, so if you decide to go off the path and ended up killing yourself or someone else for that matter it is nobodies fault but your own.
That bit was actually quite refreshing and it is something that we have noticed quite a lot over here, you are expected to use your common sense, and if you don’t it’s tough and you probably will next time.
In the UK it would be a licence to print lawsuits, if the owners of wherever you are haven’t taken into account that an idiot is going to do something stupid, then they are deemed to have been negligent. Quite often the idiot has done the same thing many times over, knows the system and makes a very nice living out of it.
So we entered Giants Cave, armed with our Hard Hats and Torches, seven kids and six adults descended into the depths.
It was great fun, the route was easy to find and there was a manmade staircase that took us down into the first part of the cave system, apparently we descended 83 metres, equivalent to a 30 storey building, came back virtually to the top and then went back down 83 metres again, before coming back to the surface.
We don’t pretend to be the sort of people that would normally get involved in caving or potholing, but this was a half hearted insight into what it could be like.
There were no lights down there whatsoever, apart from the ones that we took with us, and there were plenty of places where it was possible to slip or trip and hurt yourself.
As we made our final ascent there were a couple of places where there were ladders going through small holes that had to be negotiated, the art was to have a good look at it first as you needed to be a bit of a contortionist to get through easily, if you were built like the Michelin man you could always leave the way we came in.
After the cave we went back to the campsite to have lunch before heading back towards home.

On the way home we decided to stop at a place called Gracetown, we had heard of it but never found it on our travels and everybody had told us how nice it was, so today we made a point of finding it.
Gracetown is a lovely little place on the coast and is in danger of being swallowed up by the developers, it has a lovely little beach in a sheltered cove.
Ian, Carolyn and Marisa, who was feeling too tired to do anything else, stopped in the Café for a coffee and cake while looking out across the water. The boys went to the shop next door, bought themselves an Ice Cream and went to play on the beach.
We must have sat there for the best part of an hour before heading for home.

When we got home the kids had their showers because they stank, had an early tea and went to bed, they were all asleep by about 6.30pm, a record.
We sat up for a while and watched Air America with Mel Gibson, it has got to be one of his best, we never tire of watching it.

1 comment:

Ganeida said...

Where to start? lol. I must say it always puzzles me when other countries treat their citizens like full blown morons; they only live up to expectations! ;P Germany was the worst I've been. I was a Sydnesider at the time. Jay walking is a national pastime [ever notice] & getting a lecture on a Sunday aftetnoon with nary a car in sight, not even a parked car, because we should have crossed at the pedesterian still boggles my poor little mind.

I have caved. I only freaked once. The girl ahead of me was on the larger side & prone to a case of the panics so I gave her my light & then the wretch got stuck in the last chimney squeeze on the way out & I sat in the pitch dark for an hour while they tried to unstick her & I worried about having to try & find my way back the other way without a light. Never again.