Clifftop Cave Home In Blue Mountains
Meet Lionel Bucket who owns some of the most exhilarating views in the world from the stone outcrop which also doubles up as the veranda of his clifftop cave home. He owns an outlook over the Blue Mountain range located in Australia from the cave home that was built on 600 acres of bush land which has been in his family since the 1950s.
Lionel inherited the land and decided to make use of the land for his creativity and created eco-friendly cabins for people to live in during vacations. The cabins are a testament of his imagination along with his tradesmanship. He built the first home at the age of 17 years and since then has been putting his skills as a carpenter to test. His most remarkable creation, however, is the clifftop cave that hardly makes use of wood at all.
It is a concrete and steel construction that has been built around a platform of natural rock. The entry to the cave home goes via a small round wooden door (think of homes in Middle Earth’s Shire). Once you step through the door, you’ll be on a landing with a sandstone kitchen. Take few steps down and you’ll reach the main living area with a space for a heater where you can burn wood, a bed that sports kangaroo skins along with a hidden TV that is located behind the sliding door made of stone.
Lionel has placed a copper pipe winding around the exhaust of the heater and the collected waste heat is used for heating water up as it makes its way to a tank located on the roof of the cave home. Double glazed glass doors are also used which can be rolled out to open up the cave and allow the external air to flood in.
Bathroom features a stone basin that has been carved by hand and an ironstone toilet seat that has been installed over a long drop composting ‘dunny’. The cave home also sports an outdoor shower and allows the residents to enjoy quite stunning views of the valley.
A number of carvings on the interior of the cave home tell the history of settlement in Australia. According to Lionel, he looks around the land when he walks for spots where can build and found this particular spot for the clifftop cave about 5 years ago.
The clifftop cave home will eventually be open to hiring by guests via the Blue Mountains Cabins website, however, as of now Lionel finds himself attached to it.
