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Why Blowholes?

Several people have looked puzzled when I talk about blowholes in the desert because they have seen coastal blowholes spraying water into the air. These blowholes are a long way from the coast and they blow air, not water.

Early explorers saw and heard the air rushing in and out of the caves. Many of them were familiar with the sea breeze that blows on shore and assumed that the coastal winds were pressurising the underground caverns.

There are two major influences on the strong drafts that blow in and out of the underground caverns.

The first driving force is the temperature. During the day when the outside air may reach 45 degrees Celsius and the air in the caves is cold the air blows out to equalise the pressure. (Hot air is not as dense as cold air.)

At night the situation is reversed. The outside air can fall below freezing on a frosty night while the caves maintain about 10 degrees Celsius. The caves draw in the colder air.

The other influence is the barometric pressure changes of the weather cells. A large high pressure cell may stand over the caves for days forcing air into the cave system. When it is displaced by a low pressure cell the air is released from the caves.

Photo’s and story of 1999 expedition by Hank Coppus.

Photo’s and story of 2015 expedition part1 by Hank Coppus.

Photo’s and story of 1999 expedition part 2 by Hank Coppus.

Kangaroo stew.

In 2017 we camped near bore 31 in WA. On our first night in camp a fight started in the early hours and Ken Boland got up to see what the fuss was about. He turned his spotlight on and saw a red kangaroo about 30 metres from camp being harassed by three dingoes. They were oblivious to the light and went about bringing the kangaroo down. The adult dingo would worry the roo from the front while the two younger ones attacked its tail. By opening a wound at the base of the tail the roo apparently died from blood loss. There were no other wounds and the animal was not mutilated.

            When I awoke and found the dead animal I knew that we could make a meal of it so I returned to my camp to get a knife. I hoped to butcher the roo before the rest of the camp woke up as some people are squeamish about blood. By the time I started cutting there were three people with cameras taking pics. Obviously not squeamish. I removed the hind leg and took it back to my trailer where I removed the skin, took the steak off the bone and cut it up for stew.

            There was much discussion about the death of the kangaroo and why the dingoes ate none of it. One suggestion is that they would wait for a few days for it age before eating it. Someone suggested that the dingo bitch was teaching the young pups how to do this without being injured themselves. The other proposition was that the dingoes killed the roo to get a drink as the nearest water was quite some distance. There was very little blood on the ground and yet the roo bled to death.