Sharons Shout: CHILLAGOE LIMESTONE CAVES 03/09/2018

After turning right from the Dimbulah caravan park entrance, we head to Chillagoe about an hours drive, after about 20 minutes we drive through the town of Petford,
{remembering not to blink} not much to see in Petford, as not too many people live here now, the original pub and railway station, both blocked off, a reminder of days gone by.
When you drive out ofthe town of Petford to Chillagoe the road turns to dirt.

Petford railway station
&
local watering hole (Pub)

A tourist train still passes through here twice a week Wednesday and Saturday

Before heading to the caves we took a detour and viewed the Old Chillagoe smelters

mining site and three tall chimneys that still remain,
you cant go near them due to chemicals that were used to process the Ore.This mine was abandoned in 1943

The view from the top entrance to the caves looking down onto the car-park below, where

you have to walk up the concrete pathway and

several levels of steps before getting to the entrance of

'Trezkinn Cave'. In the past there was no steps and you had to climb up over the rocks.

Chandelier made of limestone droplets (a)

We visited here on Monday 3rd September 2018

and explored two of the three ranger guided limestone caves, the first cave 'Trezkinn Cave' being the more interesting of the two, the above photo of the chandelier hung from the roof, there was also a quiet large area inside the cave where people would come in the past and have a picnic lunch {entered via another entrance which has since been shut off}.

The second cave 'Royal Arch ' we had to take a special torch with us, {provided by the guide} as there was no lighting inside this cave. This cave tour takes you through 11 chambers and passages. There was many a section where we had to get down on hands and knees to go under the hanging limestone formations. At one spot we had to turn sideways to get through a section they called 'the squeeze hole', on the other side was a fig tree growing up through the limetone.
We seen unexpected glimpses of darting bats and ancient marine fossils, well worth the effort.

Fig tree

In one section we had to crouch down to almost being on our knees crawling to get through a section they call the squeeze hole to discover a beautiful items hanging from the roof.