We made a trip on Saturday again by car: this time to the south of Sydney to Kiama, where we were very lucky and could see the blowhole working very hard))
Kiama is about 120 km to the south from Sydney, located at the coast. ‘The name Kiama is from the aboriginal word Kiaram-a, to which some sources give the meaning “Where the sea makes a noise“‘. It has two blowholes - a bigger and a smaller one. They were discovered ‘by George Bass on his voyage of coastal exploration on December 6, 1797‘, but it was known by the local Aboriginals before, who called it ‘Khanterintee’.
I discovered only after the trip on Internet, that there is a smaller blowhole as well, not too far from the other one, so we just missed it this time…But no worries, the bigger one made us amazed already.
So what is a blowhole exactly? It is a kind of hole in the rock at the coast, from which the water is blown out under high pressure. It becomes first vapour and falls back to the ground in big drops. There was a board with a good picture and text explaining the phenomenon:
`The Kiama Headland is composed of volcanic rock called latite. A volcanic extrusion, known as a dyke, cuts through the latite. The dyke is composed of a softer rock called basalt. Over millions of years the softer basalt has eroded faster than the latite creating a tunnel under the headland. Eventually part of the headland collapsed creating the Kiama Blow Hole.
As each wave surges through the tunnel, air is compressed in the rear chamber building tremendous pressure. As waves subside, pressure in the chamber releases forcing the trapped water up the blow hole with loud `whoomp`.`
If the blowhole functions at full capacity, the spout comes up about 20 m high- maybe sometimes higher-, and it makes a tremendous noise, so you even feel the energy under the rocks. It is nice to watch it for a while and waiting for the biggest launches. Believe me, it surprises everybody. And it is worth waiting because the spouts are not standard high, neither in frequency nor in `quality`.
It is said, that the success of this phenomenon depends on a lot of things - the height and the direction of the curls and the height of the sea. For the bigger blowhole for example the waves coming from the south-east are the most prosperous.
There is already a safety fence built around the hole after many accidents. This blog from a Hungarian guy tells a story about three unlucky persons who wanted to have a shower in the water vapour. Unfortunately the shower was not the best idea, because a sudden enormous break took all of them under the rock, and
they had to be taken in away in a coffin. Sad story. I am not sure if it is true, maybe it is only an urban legend, but it is true, that somebody in the NSW Parliament had already asked for this fence in 2000 because of the many serious accidents earlier. In that speech there were mentioned other true and sad stories.
So there is a smaller blowhole in Kiama as well, and it is good because it is said to be working more balanced. It prefers the surfs coming from the north-east.
A white lighthouse has been standing behind the bigger blowhole majestically since 1887, where young couples like posing for wedding photos. I share their opinion, it is a really romantic place.
I read that around 600 thousands visitors arrive here every year, which means about 11 and a half thousand people a week. It is a huge number, isn`t it? As I remember there were about 100 visitors already together
with us at the same time on Saturday -an hour before sunset. Luckily, the place around the blowhole was not overcrowded, so it was fine.
Anyway, there are blowholes in other places in the world as well, for example in New-Zealand I would be very curious about this one. And about any other ones of course. Have you seen other blowholes? Do you want to share your story and pictures? It would make us very happy!!
But until then watch this funny video about the blowhole working in tough times!)))
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