Apr 25: Saying Goodbye Again, and Another Cave

Once again I said goodbye to Dorothy. Maybe we will cross paths again, but as Dorothy said, they will do in one day what takes me a week.

Dorothy and I 

Beverly (Dorothy’s sister), Dorothy and I

Beverly’s daughter, Frances, was still asleep when I left. Bev and Dorothy will spend a week in Mt. Gambier with Frances, so who knows, maybe I will see them again???

Because I hadn’t planned to stay in Mt. Gambier, I didn’t have too far to go today. That was good because I wanted to stop at Tantanoola Cave, and...the wind was not the best. The cave was open, even though it is ANZAC Day (if you don’t know this Australian, and I imagine New Zealand holiday, you can Google it). Prior to getting to Tantanoola Cave, I rode by another cave called Fossil Cave. I just saw it out of the corner of my eye along the side of the road. It’s not a public cave per se.

Only certified cave divers allowed.

Entrance

That blue is water. 

There really are tons of caves in the area. Most all are limestone, like the ones in Mt. Gambier. Tantanoola, on the other hand is made up of dolomite. That makes it a unique cave for the area. It’s not that big or deep of a cave. In fact, in places, it’s only a few meters under the surface. That makes for lots and lots of stalactites (water drips through from the surface quite quickly). Of course, there are also stalagmites, columns, and shawls. Tantanoola was similar to Marakoopa and King Solomon’s caves that I visited in Tasmania. 

Jake, the tour guide calls this column the chocolate fountain.

Spooky!

From Tantanoola, I only had 16km to go. The headwind made it a rather long 16km, but I eventually arrived in the town of Millicent. Lakeview Caravan Park is a quiet place. I’m sort of surprised there aren’t more people here with it being a holiday. But, maybe people only have today off...

Tomorrow I will be riding on the Southern Ports Hwy. I don’t know if it will be less traffic than Princes Hwy, but probably not many trucks. The towns along the way are supposed to be quite nice. I should also get back to views of the ocean.

It was really great to catch up with Dorothy, and to meet Bev and Frances. Fingers crossed, I will see Bev and Dorothy again!