NELSON - POPULATION: 226

WEDNESDAY 13.5.2015: Question: How many “numbnuts” does it take to cross a State border? Answer: Two – Peel and Turner! Having once before stocked up on food then realising that all fruit and vegetables needed to be dumped, we undertook the Masterchef cook up! Oh, the excitement of reaching Portland and finding an ALDI – let’s buy up big on all our vegetables! One day later – SA State Border in sight, S-O let’s spend the next two days in yet another cook up – yep, some people take longer than others to understand the message! 

We are off to experience the three and a half hour return Nelson River Cruise along the Glenelg River to the Princess Margaret Rose Cave - only 140 steps to explore the cave! 

DIDN'T LAST LONG OUTSIDE!

Mr K. McEachern and Mr J. Hutchesson and his sons Alan & Bernie, first explored the cave in 1936. The original entrance was a 17m vertical shaft only large enough for a small framed person. Keith was lowered down into the tunnel by rope and carried with him a candle and torch. Two hours later he asked his mate to pull him back to the surface and advised that he had found the 'Aladdin's Cave'. 

Visitor access was restricted so a stairwell had to be dug through the limestone - this stairwell took Keith and "Bunny" 5 years to dig. They developed the cave as a tourist attraction with "Bunny" Hutchesson acting as the first permanent guide, conducting tours from January 1941. Since 1980, the cave has been part of the Lower Glenelg National Park. The beauty of these caves is the fact that although they are smaller than others we have seen, we were able to be very close to the formations.

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