Abercrombie Caves

 

12 and 13 May 2001

 

A Cave like Abercrombie.

 By Adam Peters

 

Present: Adam Peters (Trip Leader), Sarah Chatterton, Andrew, Alison and Caitlyn Scobie, Bill Nakken, Rick and Hung Costa

 

Aims:

 - to familiarise with the area and relax.

 

All roads lead out of Goulburn where we all congregated and of course, upon leaving the sheep capital headed out on the wrong road. So a short detour via Taralga, dodging Owls, Rabbits, Roo’s and foxes, we drove on but couldn’t pass the Neon sign that spelt Pub and subsequently stopped. At the three church and 1 pub town of Tuena we took a wee break and a quiet ale with the six locals and 1 dog. The fire was very hard to leave as we departed for the last couple of Kay’s to Abercrombie.

 

Camp was set in the middle of the night and a restless night was had. Woke up in a scorching hot tent - a contrast from the freezing night before and when I finally dragged my carcase out of bed it was 9:00am. After a quick breakfast went to the visitor centre / Kiosk and saw Barry, the caretaker, who gave us a key and a free range to all the caves. The only catch being we tell and report to him on what, if anything, was wrong and if we encounter any bats.

 

So off we trudged with the bare necessities, and with key in hand conquered Abercrombie Main and Bushranger cave before lunch. After our food was devoured back at camp we donned our overalls and went wild. After feverishly scouring the Limestone near our camp for a cave or two, we turned away disappointed and headed back to do the remaining tourist caves we hadn’t yet done. A quick visit to Grove cave, a short cave with some crawly sections and some formation, we then partied onto Stable Arch cave tagged A26 and A27. In the top entrance (A27) we squeezed and down through a rock fall squeezing and climbing to a cavern at the bottom exiting with a few bats at A26 on dusk.

 

Back at camp after a hot shower and dinner we crammed around the campfire doing traditional campfire things that involved cups and a red liquid substance. Yet as the tall stories got shorter and shorter Alison made a startling discovery. We may have a theory on the formation of the Nullarbor Stegamites. They seem related to the Abercrombie Crayback formations found in the river passage of Abercrombie Main. Anyhow an early-ish night was had as the lack of sleep from the previous night had caught up with the red liquid substance and our brains went to sleep.

 

The next day saw another relaxed start and by the time camp was packed it was getting on to lunch and preferring to head home despite a few disgruntled protests the caves were left for another day. As all roads lead now to Goulburn we found the correct road and as the party split at Crookwell, with ½ deciding to continue home whilst the rest grabbed a bite to eat. After a short visit to the Crookwell wind farm we were on the haul home. Another great weekend in a surprisingly great spot and although numbers were low we may have scored three new members.

 

Also next time we go we will have to make contact with MSS (Metropolitan Speleos?) and get information on where more wild caves are hiding as there are heaps of outcrops that must harbour caves.

 

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