A world beneath

Crossing the Nullarbor Plain in September 2009. A vast, flat and featureless expanse. It’s hard to believe that, beneath this hot, dry landscape there is another world, a vast system of underground caves, rivers and water-filled tunnels.
 
Today I listened to a fascinating interview with Dr Stefan Eberhard, a cave diver who has spent forty years exploring this strange and largely unknown world. It has white limestone walls and crystal clear water. Skeletons of mega fauna and extinct marsupials have been found here: they fell into the caves through ‘dolines’ or sink holes. It has its own unique fauna, blind shrimps and fish, beetles and spiders. And, for those who are drawn to slime, it has slime: glowing, translucent stalactite-like ‘slime curtains’.
 
An amazing glimpse into an unknown world, and such a total contrast with the Nullarbor as we know it.