​Mimbi Caves: stories in stone from an ancient past - 15 Septmber 2017

The rocks are jagged and stained black by millenia of cyanobacteria activity.

Underneat the blackened surface the rock is various colours. The patterns in the cliffs made by cave ins and erosion like this conjured up all manner of creatures from other worlds. 

before we entered the caves which had been carved out lover thousands of  years by water, we had to rub a peddle under our arms and throw it into the water to let the rainbow serpent we were OK.

A 160 or so km from Tunnel Creek, 90 km east of Fitzroy Crossing, we visited another spectacular and significant geological site - Mimbi caves. This cave system is also part of the ancient Devonian reef system and shows ancient fossilised reefs.

There were quite a lot of rock painting which we could access but there were many more deeper in the cave system which was off limits to us,

We walked in with the aid of torches

Unlike many caves the stalactite and stalagmites were not lit with coloured lights. They came alive when we shone our torches on them,

We saw it through the eyes of the people who have lived in this area for thousands of years. The Gooniyandi people are the traditional owners on the region. Now cattle graziers, they were once enslaved. A dark history. Harrison Skinner, traditional owner and our guide, took us exploring through a small part of this magical system of caves carved out by flowing water over the millennia.
These caves are on his land and we were treated to the traditional stories of the origins of the caves and surrounding land.

this is the remnants of a group of European archaeologists who left a scar on the site and took priceless artifacts - fortunately they were recovered! This is a chess board and set they made out of limestone cement.

They modified this cave and lived in it for I think 6 months

The tour ended with damper and billy tea around a camp fire and were entertained by Harrison 'Indie' Skinner.

This is Indie our guide.  Delightful sense of fun and humour.  

On the way back to visit Geikie Gorge, the wheels fells off our plans!! Sadly we never got to Geikie Gorge.