Day 433 Nowhere Else Wednesday 4th April 2012

Creek on Union Bridge Road

Marakoopa cave

Marakoopa Cave

King Solomon's Cave

King Solomon's cave

King Solomon's cave

King Solomon's cave

Aragonite KingSolomons cave

Water pool in King Solomon's

Devils Gullet lookout

Hi Folks,
A day off for us although by the time we left the house it was after 11.
The weather was sunny and warm contrasting to this day 12 months ago in Nubeena where the blog notes there was an Antarctic gale blowing.
We drove the "back "route to Mole Creek under the shadow of Mount Roland and over the low range that separates us from the next valley that the Mersey River runs through. On the way we stopped at  picturesque creek crossing on Union Bridge road.
We arrived at Marakoopa Cave in time for the 1pm tour. The ranger suggested we drive up to Devils Gullet as an alternative to driving to the end of the Lake Rowallen road which was my original intention since it takes you to the base of the Walls of Jerusalem walk and goes past some free camps. Marakoopa Cave was large. It was not overly full of formations but does has the best glow worm population of Australian caves. At least that is what i think the guide said. We did see a lot of glow worms. It also has some large cave spiders which can live for many years and can grow to 22cm across the legs.
Apparently there is a cave called Kublai Khan nearby which has restricted entry with a waiting list of 3 years. This has a huge shallow lake and enormous columns.
We journeyed on to King Solomons cave. This was smaller and tighter to move through and was packed with many excellent formations. The caves were quite different to each other. I preferred King Solomons due to the variety and quantity of formations.
Leaving the caves we drove towards Lake Rowallan turning off onto a dirt road up to Devils Gullet. 15km of mainly up hill travel and we found ourselves in the familiar montane countryside reminiscent of Mount Field and Cradle Mountain. We parked the car and walked the 500 metres to the lookout. This was perched on the edge of a fairly steep drop. Although the day was sunny and calm the updraft was fairly whistling up the cliff. Spectacular views which you can see on the soundless video.
We drove up the road to Lake McKenzie a shallow hydro lake formed by damming the Fly River which flows through the valley below Devils Gullet. From what I could see water is discharged from the lake through a viaduct before disappearing down a pipe to the power station on the river in the valley from whence it is discharged. This is just a guess.
With the shadows lengthening we returned home just after dark for the beef hotpot dish from last night. Another great meal washed down with  dry red.
Another tough day.
Night Folks

Cheers Simon

Marakoopa cave

King Solomons Cave

Fisher lookout

Devils Gullet minus the wind noise from the up draft. Cradle mountain is to the right on the horizon. The Fly River is in the valley