Day 124 – 16/9/2019 on a Midlife Adventure.
A short drive from Katherine, NT is the Cutta Cutta Caves and having seen many of the caves in the south it will be interesting to compare the difference.
One of the biggest differences is that there is no big hills, it is a small rocky outcrop that you walk over and discover this entrance in the middle of.
Normal Stalagmites and Stalactites are on display with one of the key differences being that unlike a normal cave where it is quite cool the average temperature here is around 32 degrees.
Over the years some of the Stalactites have been damaged and some even shot through. The tour guide explains that one of the reasons for this is during the war some of the nearby army base conscripts in an attempt to damage their hearing would come down and shoot at the roof amplifying the sound.
When you reach the end of the walkway the humidity increases significantly.
One of the major challenges for a tropical cave is that it only rains during the wet season so the rate of growth is very slow. Also this cave can get so much water during the wet that it floods to the roof.
On the way out we did get to see one of the small snakes that inhabitants the cave and enjoys snacking on a bat in the evenings.
We also saw some wallabies that like to rest in the cave.
I then took the long walk back to the base camp which was uneventful.
On the way back to camp I hung around at the Katherine Airport that overlooks the RAAF Base Tindal where I could spot some F/A-18 Hornets, I was hopeful they would take off whilst I was there but they didn’t. They did however fly over later in the afternoon over the campsite which was impressive.
Continuing my exploration of the Katherine, NT Region tomorrow on this Midlife Adventure.
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