After lunch, we decided to visit another cave in the region, Ngilgi Cave. This exquisitely decorated cave, with its stunning stalactites, stalagmites, helictites and beautifully coloured shawls, was Western Australia’s first tourist attraction.
This semi-guided tour of Ngilgi's main show cave allow us to explore its labyrinthine beauty at our own pace. Hear fascinating stories of the very first cave tour at Ngilgi as the guide led us down the cave entry, then after a short introductory talk we were free to do the show cave on your own!
We first visited 'The Amphitheatre', where we could lie down on the ground and look up for a spectacular view. The view of the stalactites was so mesmerising and some said it's like in a Star Wars movie.
Another unique feature of this cave is a tunnel where we could slide down to reach to another chamber of this underground wonderland.
With a constant temperature of 20°C, the cave is an ideal place to visit year round.
The cave was quite easy to navigate and not cramped like some other caves. However, there are quite a number of stairs (about 350 steps) to negotiate, but we did not have to go down them all in one go. Good that we could do it at our own pace.
Ngilgi Cave (pronounced “Neel-gee”) was discovered in 1899 by Edward Dawson, who also became the first tour guide. Many stories exist about how he stumbled across it, but it is thought that he was looking for stray horses.
The Karst cave system dates back half a million years, and fossils of the Tasmanian Tiger have been found here. It was originally named Yallingup Cave but was changed to Ngilgi Cave to acknowledge Australian Aboriginal mythology. Ngilgi, the Great Spirit of the Ocean, is part of the bedtime story of the local Wardandi people. They are now the custodians of the caves within the area.
At one point in the cave, there are several beautifully coloured shawls.
There was another guide who stationed at the centre of the cave to explain the cave's incredible formations. She was there to help visitors to take pictures as well.
The boardwalks took you through the cave, where lights illuminated the various formations.
We spent slightly more than an hour in the cave before ascending to the cave exit via the stairs.
Enjoy the below video that presents the highlights of Ngilgi Cave.
No comments:
Post a Comment