Photos from the Barkly karst
/Here are some images from our recent trip. First up a few surface shots. Most of the caves are impossible to find without helicopter support and many are vertical shafts from 5-20m deep requiring some abseiling. Here is John Hellstrom in action.
Underground most of the caves are choked with sediment. One or two, however, have nice formations. Here is a chamber with ancient rimstone pools and another shot of us coring a very old weather-beaten speleothem.
We are also interested in the Miocene cave formations and the climate histories that they reveal. These caves have been unroofed by erosion and are now mostly represented only by remnant karst forms. Access is helicopter only - here is a shot of our transport (many thanks go to our our sharp-eyed, observant pilot Davin, who first identified many of the caves from the air) and a couple of these ancient stalagmites, truncated by erosion.