Just call me Bruce Wayne

Naracoorte is a World Heritage Listed site which contains an enormous cave system, fossils, and tens of thousands of bats!

We are camped here in the National Park with full water and electricity supplies – very rare for a government-run park.  Opposite our van is a grassy area which attracts large grey kangaroos who wander lazily across the lawn to eat their dinner each night.  We meet a nice Canadian couple who are spending a few months touring in their Isuzu and must regrettably cut their trip short due to lack of funds.  They adore Australia and wish they could stay longer.  This is a common story – people from Europe or America come to get a taste of Aussie life and don;t want to leave.  Most people remark on the lay-back approach of Australians and the diversity of our land, from forests to deserts to vibrant cities, quirky towns, and everything in between.  They also comment on how expensive it seems to be to live here and many run out of funds before schedule.  And picking fruit for $18 per hour is hardly a king’s ransom too.

Tourists are permitted to visit several caves, either via tour guide, or self-guided.  We purchase the $60 ticket which gives us as much access to these natural beauties as we can handle, plus entry into the very informative and somewhat 70’s-retro-style exhibition. 

Just call me Batman

The highlight of our time here at Naracoorte was undoubtedly our experience with 34,000 bats.  After dusk, if you stand at the mouth of one of the caves, you will witness, and indeed, experience, the population of tiny bats flying in a cyclonic wave from the cave mouth, into the nearby forest to feed.  At the peak of this amazing event, 1,200 bats leave the cave per minute, and although it is almost too dark to see (although you can see the silhouettes), you can feel the air whip around your face, as the bats narrowly miss hitting you as they fly erratically past you.  It is a truly remarkable sensation, exhilarating and a little frightening, and it can be difficult to stand there without wanting to shield your face with your hands.  (Ever seen the movie Wayne’s World?  There is a scene in which Wayne and Garth lie upon the bonnet of their car next to the airport, and cry out in joyous fear as low-flying planes pass right over them).  There is a scientist here who 'counts' the bats nightly, using a thermo-triggered movie-camera, and she invited us to look at her laptop screen to view little glowing white creatures fly up and out of the cave - and there are far too many for us to see with the naked eye!




The cave tours

 The first cave tour is to see Alexandra Caves. 

The 'dripping' stalactites in the photo below are also called 'straws' and are entirely hollow (other than being filled with water).  They are formed when water that drips from the ceiling combines with the minerals in the rocks to form calcite tubes.

Next on the list is Bat Cave and Blanche Cave.  The Bat Cave experience was 'gay' at best, involving us being herded into a room and shown some bats via ultrasonic camera on a TV screen in a dingy room with outdated posters and dusty stuffed bats hanging from the ceiling.  Unfortunately we were not invited into the cave itself due to the intense smell of (and threat of stepping in piles of) guano (bat poo). 

Blanche Cave was similarly unstunning, with the exception of an exposed archaeological site, displaying layers of soil and even a little pile of old bones.




Mmmm blobby



Our journey into the Victoria Fossil Cave was stunning, interesting, and thoroughly enjoyable.  Accompanied by a tour guide who had a great sense of humour, and an intimate knowledge of the history of the caves, this was by far my favourite tour.

The Victoria Fossil Cave is one of the best showcases of the World heritage values of the park.
Within, the Fossil Chamber is the most extensively studied. The fossils in the chamber give us a unique window into the climate and environment of the times when these animals lived.

The tour takes you through several chambers on the way to the Fossil Chamber where time is spent discussing the accumulation of bones in the caves and excavation techniques.

 

You'll also get the chance to analyse complete skeletons of megafauna species.  Spooky!



After the tour, we took a short walk to view some apparent "cliffs", which turned out to be a walk through prickly grass and blackberry bushes for naught.  But.....  blackberries abound! 

We picked a nice big handful for the next day's breakfast, and they were delicious.

Finally, the last day arrived, and we spent this day wandering through Wet Cave and exploring the Woonabi Fossil Centre.

 Wet Cave can be accessed via self guided tour.  It does not contain very much calcite (which is disappointing) but it does hold many of these small watery structures - interesting to look at but very difficult to photograph.

Walk through the doors of the Woonabi Fossil Centre and step back in time!

This exhibition is filled with stuffed examples of extinct animals, many of which are extremely large, and which represent life in Naracoorte millions of years ago.  There are loud-speakers placed around the exhibition which bark, screech and roar at you.  Most of the animals have moving parts, such as an arm that swings or a head that tilts.  Overall,m this exhibition might excite a young child, but really, it's very outdated and, as I kept telling myself as I was forcing myself to immerse in the experience, "gay".  I think the silliest animal was the large bovine-type mammal which was either giving birth or was in the middle of the very difficult poo.  Think "Ace Ventura 2".


Despite the gayness of this exhibition, we thoroughly enjoyed it!