Thierings on Tour

What a glorious place to wake up in! The sun was beaming, it was warm and the scenery was lovely. I can’t decide what was prettier, seeing the moon rise or seeing the sun rise.
We packed up quickly and everyone was in the car by 7.30am, which is quite the miracle for us! Obviously it wasn’t just pure willpower, but we had a cave tour booked for 8am.

We drove a short distance to the start of the tour and started walking the outer formations of caves dated over 350 million years ago. Our guide Jermaine explained that we were actually walking on an ancient coral bed and that everything around us was previously under water. We were able to see many examples of fossilised rocks before we got to the caves. Including a map of Australia rock.

The caves have multiple entrances and there was a little base for us with seats in a circle and what looked like tea & damper later. 

First we explored the smaller cave to the left, which had water crossings, stalagmites and stalactites, pools and rock art at the end of the cave. The rock art was scratched into the walls depicting stories of spirits, who guide and protect the local Gooniyandi people and Jermaine shared that grandfathers would share these stories with young boys whereas the grandmothers would share the stories with young girls.

There were so many cool and stunning parts to the cave and it felt like we were able to explore a lot more compared to other cave tours as part of bigger operations. 

Then it was on to the big cave or as Jermaine called it, the master suite, ha ha. It was HUGE! Again, we saw more stalagmites and stalactites, something the girls found fascinating. There were also some microbats in the cave for the kids to find.

The cave system undulated through many different parts and there were many little caves that you could look into (and probably explore) but we stuck to the ones Jermaine was sharing with us. I couldn’t believe how long and complex the cave system was, you could easily get lost in there without a guide!

We came to a large clearing and were allowed to explore this part of the cave freely. The girls had an absolute blast here and quickly made friends with a couple of kids of similar age. They were pretending to surf, they found a rock slide and just generally being allowed to climb and explore was right up their alley! Scarly loved sliding down the smooth rock too. Honestly, I think it has to be one of the best cave tours we’ve done on this trip so far.

Back at the tour base we had damper scones and warm tea cooked on the fire. What a nice and unexpected treat! 

Then it was back on the road to get to Derby by the end of the day. We had a couple of stops for lunch, fuel and a stretch of the legs. Luckily there are some incredible places to stop and admire the Kimberley wonders – the beautiful Boab trees.

Kms travelled – 354