Ngilgi Cave
11.07.2019

Fly through a forest, crawl an ancient crystal riverbed.

Two unique adventures await in the Margaret River Region, both perfectly suited to wintry days. Zip line through the world’s last remaining tuart forest or take an adventure tour through Ngilgi Cave and see the crystals everyone else misses.

Forest Adventures South West
Adrenaline junkies will love Forest Adventures. Photo: Tim Campbell

Adventures High

Fancy flying through the forest on an exhilarating zipline, unicycling between trees or climbing a swaying, suspended totem pole ladder where the reward for your nail-biting 18-metre ascent is nine awesome zip lines? Calling all adrenaline junkies, you’re going to love this natural high. Forest Adventures South West is a brilliant all-weather adventure, and rain just adds to the fun.

Experts are on hand to help you master the safety equipment and deal with any nerves. The equipment is superb – a double carabiner safety system ensures you’re 100% secure.

It’s not all dizzying heights, and with six courses to choose from, there are family friendly courses with fun obstacles such as the crawl-through lobster traps suspended metres above the ground and the snowboard that flies between trees.

Adventure seekers can challenge themselves on courses 5 and 6. Beat the climbing wall record time, swing across a void onto a cargo net, then the only thing between you and terra firma is a BASE jump. It’s a free fall at first, then the magic system kicks in and gently lowers you to the ground. The anticipation and the first fraction of a second of falling will have your heart in your mouth, then you’re fine. It’s time to test those nerves.

Forest Adventures is great for kids aged 7+ or over 110cm

Forest Adventures South West, 12 Ludlow Park Road, Busselton
Bookings recommended: www.forestadventures.com.au

Ngilgi Cave
Take a two-hour exploration of Ngilgi Cave. Photo: Tim Campbell

Adventures Low

There’s no room to lift your knees when you’re commando crawling down Ngilgi Cave’s ancient river bed. Instead, clamp your mouth shut to avoid a gob full of vivid orange sand and use your toes to propel yourself forward.

This is the deepest part of the million-year-old Ngilgi Cave, 45 metres below ground. Shayne, our guide, talked about the cave’s history and formation, and we switched off our torches to experience mind-bending darkness. The sort of darkness that makes you imagine you can see things.

It’s a two-hour exploration of the deepest parts of the cave, where you’ll climb and crawl past pristine dogtooth crystal, hollow glass-like straws and creamy flowstone that people on the regular boardwalk tour miss completely.

There are over 100 caves beneath the Leeuwin-Naturaliste ridge, created when water hollowed out the limestone rock a million years ago. Sparkling calcite crystal formations began decorating these caves around 500,000 years ago.

Suitable for adults and kids aged 10+

Ngilgi Cave, 76 Yallingup Caves Road, Yallingup
Bookings essential: www.margaretriverattractions.com/caves/ngilgi-cave/

Forest Adventures South West
Family fun at Forest Adventures. Photo: Tim Campbell