King Solomons Cave

On our way up to Cradle Mountain, we passed by Mole Creek Caves - a collection of caves open to the public.

King Solomons Cave is small but compact and offered lavish colours and formations.
It was an amazing sight from the moment you stepped in through the door


The ceiling was covered in stalactites

and straws

These grow at an average rate of 1cm every 100years! So it's hard to imagine how old the formation in this cave are.

It is regarded as a relatively ‘dry’ cave as it has no stream flowing through it. A stream has previously flowed through the cave but this has long since cut deeper into the limestone and abandoned King Solomons. While the stream was important in the corrosion of the limestone and the formation of the cave, it’s abandonment has mean the development of a stable environment that has allowed spectacular stalagmites and other formations to form.

These formations below are called draperies, or nick-named bacon rashes!

This shows the cross-section of one of these formation, sadly damaged in the past when vandals broke into the cave.

Other interesting formation are 'popcorn'

and 'cave coral'

The cave sparkled with calcite decorating the chambers.

We even met the local resident, the Tasmanian Cave Spider though as my photos didn't come out, here's one on a poster..

The cave was guarded by this wonderful sculpture...