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On August 5th, 2005 my friends named Mark and Mike called me
and invited me me to explore some caves with them on Lightning Ridge.
How could I resist? With nice weather, good friends, and the itch for caving,
it would be a great day.
There are many caves in this area and we are familiar with only a few of
them.
Our goal was to thoroughly explore one cave and at least look at others.
We ended up exploring two and looking at a third.
We would like to share some exterior and interior pictures of the caves we
saw that day.
We hope you enjoy looking at them almost as much as we enjoyed exploring them.
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This is a cave Mike found a few days before. We looked it over and discovered
three holes in these bushes.
One of them had a badger in it so that one was completely out of the question.
The only hole that went anywhere was the one with the log above it.
We used the log to our advantage and tied our ropes to it.
These are great friends. From left to right they are: Jim, Mike, and Mark.
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Mike headed inside first. I hope there aren't any rattlesnakes in there.
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It was a tight fit for all of us. I'm looking up at Mark just entering the cave.
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After Mark, Mike, and I got down to the first level a come-a-long and a rope
were used to lower the ladder down to the next level so we could reach the
bottom.
Jim stayed topside in case of trouble and it rained on him while we were in
the cave.
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Once at the bottom we took our time exploring.
We measured this large room and looked it over pretty good.
Mark also pulled out his metal detector and took his time scanning the interior.
( Rumor has it that gold bars have been found on Lightning Ridge and we were hoping for a little luck. )
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The more we explored the more we became convinced that this was just a natural cave and not a mine.
The straws hanging from the ceiling were quite interesting to me.
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We found a couple of ladders inside but we didn't trust them.
They were rotten and in poor shape.
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On our way to the next site we passed a sink hole.
This is most likely how the caves in this area were started.
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The guys enjoyed seeing a catface on a tree and exploring the area.
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On the ridge Mark looked the rocks over for markers.
When it comes to this kind of stuff I consider him an expert.