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The rain's back! It settled in last night, and we could hear it on the caravan roof, much heavier and more constant than before. It hung around most of the day, and made doing things 'more inconvenient' than we wanted, and the forecast seems even worse. It looks like we'll be heading into it all week. Even so, we've had an incredible run, and should be thankful that it's been so good for so long. We're right on the Tropic of Capricorn in Rocky, so from tomorrow, we drop below the tropics zone, and that means cooler as well as wet... Bring out the trackies and uggies again!
We stayed in bed longer than usual this morning, where it was warm, but eventually had to get up and face the day. We'd decided to go to the Capricorn Caves, which was an activity we could do whether it was raining or not, and it turned out to be the right choice. The caves are great. The whole cave system is above ground level, running through a line of mountains, and were created from the time that Australia was a part of Gonwanaland, and the whole area was a coral reef. The movement of the tectonic plates, that separated Australia from the rest of the land masses also pushed this reef into a mountain, and the millions of years of rain has eroded and disolved the coral and created the caves. They were originally discovered 140 years ago, the land was purchased from the government, and they've been running tours through them for the last 120 years. They believe the caves are the oldest tourist attraction in Queensland, and they're still privately owned. The tour through the caves is easy, there's nothing physical or strenuous about it, and they're not huge, so it doesn't take too long either. Successive generations have improved the access into and through the caves, and they are now the only cave system in Queensland that can fully cater for wheelchair, pram and walker access. Most of what you see on the tour is very similar to all the other cave tours, which we've all been on before. The caves at Genolan are far bigger, and have much more impressive formations, and go for a lot longer, and I'm sure many of the others would be more impressive and more 'cavernous' as well. But the Capricorn Cave system is more personal and more 'intimate'? They're smaller spaces, and much tighter tunnels, and it feels more adventurous, even though it's not at all 'risky'. Their jewel in the crown is a chamber called The Cathedral, and they actually do hold weddings in there. It's one of the larger chambers, and they've had the acoustics tested, and they're very close to perfect... Better than the Sydney Opera House. Part of the tour involves sitting in the Cathedral while they play music, and it really does sound awesome. They turn various lights on and off, to highlight the formations, and it's a magical experience. During a wedding, they run red carpet across the front, and down the aisle, and the only light is from 400 candles... Only small weddings though, the Cathedral can only seat 80 people... Nice! The exit we took wasn't back the way we came. Jo went back the way we came. We took the Zigzag Passage out. The Zigzag Passage is a very narrow twisting corridor, that is so tight, I had to turn side on to squeeze through. Most of the time I could stand upright, but when I had to crouch and turn side on and still walk forwards, I'd begun to think I'd made a mistake... It was only 15 meters long though, and then it joined a bigger tunnel out. Jeremy and Dylan scampered through it like sewer rats. The bigger tunnel led onto two separate swinging suspension bridges, spanning quite deep crevasses of the cave system. That's why Jo didn't come with us, because the bridges bounced and swayed quite considerably, and you really felt like you had to hang on to the suspension cables on either side. Both of these were only short also, and then we were out of the caves. All in all, the tour went just over an hour, and it was a good experience which we all enjoyed...
The plan was to then go up Mt Archer Lookout, and take in our surroundings, but the rain and mist meant that would have been a complete waste of time, so we went back into town and found the shopping centre. We didn't need anything, but we didn't want to go back and sit inside the caravan for the day either. There were movies to see, but the timing for Brave didn't suit, and we didn't know if Snow White and the Huntsman would be suitable for Dylan, so we decided to give them a miss. We'll have time when we're on the Sunshine Coast for movies, and maybe someone can tell us before then if Snow White is ok for an 8 year old? We had lunch in town (we love The Coffee Club), and then came back to the park. Dylan built some lego, Jeremy downloaded some iTunes music, and Jo and I had a wander around the park. This park used to be called Tropical Wanderer, and the park and it's original owner had quite a reputation in the earlier days of BIG4. He was fairly active, and a forward thinker, and I've wanted to see it for a long time. He sold it to the Discovery corporation maybe 5 years ago, (not exactly sure), and they've let it slide a bit we think. You can easily see it used to be someone's pride and joy, and the gardens were a show piece, but there's an obvious lack of attention to detail, and things are looking worn out and not maintained. It's still nice, and perfectly acceptable, but nothing like I was expecting, or what I believe we would have seen prior to it's sale. Time moves on, and businesses become an investment instead of a passion...
We watched some DVD's this afternoon, Man From Snowy River 1 & 2, and the boys loved them. They're classics, and it's about time they did the rounds again for a new generation. Only $9 for both, from Kmart...
We had 2 minute noodles for dinner tonight, because Jo's forgotten how to cook, and we didn't feel like going out for dinner in the rain.
It's coming down heavy now, and we've found a leak above the boys' beds... As long as it's not our bed, it's fine, but in about a month's time, you'll find the caravan on ebay... Good price too...
Anyone interested?
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Fairlie Long Snow White is a little disturbing in some spots... I took Emily to see it and honestly I could've waited for DVD. It wasn't worth admission in my opinion... I heard Brave was awesome though! Fairlie xo