SUNSHINE Down UNDER

I CAN’T SEE MY HANDS. I CAN FEEL MY HEART THUDDING.

Around me, the darkness is almost absolute. I could be all alone except for the ragged breathing I hear around me, but these are strangers I’ve just met, so no comfort can be sought there.

Then, in the far distance, a light illuminates a forest of stone. Glistens on pools of water on the floor. Reveals a magnificent suspended table of limestone in the tentative brightening.

We are in a subterranean wonderland. Frances Bussel was riding through the forest rounding up the family’s cattle when her horse came to a standing stop and refused to go on. If it hadn’t, she would have pitched 85 metres into this collapsed cavern. It took another 30 years before her brother John and his friends let themselves down with ropes. Caving enthusiast Tim Connelly was the first man in. The darkness around him glowed in the light of his candle. It was 1897. He landed in water. I’m happy to be dry today. The fact can’t be escaped, though: we are a long way down under.

THE sun is shining over Margaret River the day we decide to follow those first explorers’ footsteps into Lake Cave, one of Western Australia’s most stunning limestone caves on the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge. No ropes or candles are now necessary. A series of stairs takes us ever downwards, first to a stopping area from where we get an ant’s eye view of the 150-year-old karri trees forming the periphery of this cavern that cocoons an incredible amphitheatre of stone. Gothic-looking crystal formations, algae growth, blackening by fire, all lead the eye ever upward to a ragged circle of blue sky at the top.

We climb down further, past Titanic Rock, past Headache Rock (duck or find out why) and Splitting Headache Rock (more, much more of the same) into . Clutching the railings while descending this last steepish ladder is recommended; railings are the only