tidal caves

The day after the terrible earthquake in Chile, we were issued a tsunami warning for low lying areas on the coast. As it happens, that is the day we planned to go tidal caving with a group from The Husband's photography club. Maybe not the smartest thing going, but in the end, there were no tsunami's and we had a chance to learn a lot about this amazing country we are living in.

Accompanied by a local guide, we were afforded an up close and personal look at the vegetation and geology of the coastline, about 2 hours north of Sydney. Did you know that after a bushfire, the burnt trunks of palms can remain and continue growing for over 40 YEARS after the fire? Pretty inspiring. Also, apparently palms aren't trees at all. They are a grass, since they grow from the top up. Neat.

It was an unbearable hot day, and we had a pretty steep climb ahead of us to reach the caves, but along the way we saw sinkholes, rare and endangered plants, iron ore deposits from ancient underground rivers, and some of the most gorgeous coastline you could imagine.

Once we reached the beach, we had to roll up our pants, tie our shoes around our necks, hold our cameras way over our heads, and wade through the surf to get to the tidal caves. I wasn't expecting caverns the size of a stadium to be buried under the cliffs. Years of pounding waves had created this whole underground world, filled with crazy cool rock formations. It was well worth the 2 hour hike in 100 degree heat.

It's pretty awesome to think that these kind of places exist... all you have to do is go looking for them.