....more rocks

Today we went to look at Cutta Cutta Caves, another limestone cave with stalactites and stalagmites but with a twist. The cave is home to 5 species of bat including rare ghost and horseshoe bats, and has an underground pool which is the habitat of a blind shrimp species found nowhere else on the planet.

The brown tree snake lives in the cave and hangs out on ledges grabbing bats as they fly out of the cave at night. There were none to be seen when we were there, but we did see shed snake skins hanging from stalactites. The snakes grip on to the rocks and dangle while they wriggle out of their skins.

The traditional owners of the land, the Jawoyn, named the caves Cutta Cutta- meaning many stars- because they believed that the sparkly calcite in the rock was where stars lived during the day.



We are now in Katherine a large town 300 km south of Darwin, and plan to explore more thermal springs tomorrow. The residents of the campsite are very bold 'agile wallabies' which are driving james dog demented by sneaking up on her while she is not paying attention.