After our Cradle Mountain hike, we continued our exploration of north central Tasmania with an afternoon stop at Mole Creek Karst National Park. This is the site of two highly decorated limestone caves accessible through guided tours – Marakoopa Cave and King Solomon’s Cave. The caves form part of a widespread network of underground tunnels and rivers throughout the area, and were discovered and opened to the public about 100 years ago. Today they are a major tourist attraction in the area, and are a part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site.
Click here for an outline of our Tasmanian adventure
Due to time constraints we were only able to visit the Marakoopa Cave, and the 45 minute tour is well worth the time. The knowledgeable guide gave us a history primer and described the many interesting characteristics of the cave, while lighting up specific sections as we delved deeper into the maze of tunnels. While I’ve visited limestone caves before (in Ottawa and Da Nang), the ones here were much more dramatic in terms of flowstone features. This cave also had a fantastic display of glow worms, a blanket of green ‘stars’ dotting the cave ceiling. Cool!
