I went with Toe-Knees Tours. There were about 20 people on the trip, myself and my friend Emma are both international students from James Cook University, and the rest were from a couple of international schools in Cairns. I think about 9 were from Switzerland which I think is a strangely large number.
We left the university with a full bus at about 9:30 am on saturday, heading straight up the winding road to Kuranda. We continued along to our first stop, the Coles in Mareeba. I bought mandarins.
Right after that we hopped straight back on the bus and headed west along the Burke Developmental Road. Mareeba is smack in the middle of an intense agricultrue area with mangoes, coffee, sugarcane, and many other crops cultivated on both sides of the highway into the hinterlands. We crossed over the top of the Great Dividing Range, crossing the continental divide at the top of a small rolling hill.
Eventually, we passed out of the cultivated area and into the more arid bushland.
The countryside is beautiful, grassy ground with hardy trees covering the rolling hills in a very South African Savannah type of way.
There were many cows wandering around, wallabys and kangaroos hopping, thousands of termite nests all along the sides of the road. Lots of fun was had on the bus, with everyone contributing their phones and mp3 players to the music selection. Sometimes something caught most peoples eye to take a picture.
I say most people for a reason.
Eventually we arrived at Chillagoe about a an hour or so after noon. We took a short drive around the town, short because you cannot really take a long drive around a town that small...Lunch that day was at the pub in town. It was excellent. Big juicy homemade burgers with beetroot, bacon, cheese, and much much more.
There were a few kids playing on the little playground at the pub, and they put on a bit of an acrobatic show for us during our dessert of fresh sliced pineapple.
After lunch we checked into our hotel. There are a few little cabins which some people ended up in, and the rest of us were in single rooms in converted portable buildings. They dont look like much from the outside, but they were quite nice on the inside.
After changing into swimwear, we jumped back on the bus and drove a kilometer or two to the swimming hole in the local creek to have a swim. It was a lovely time.
After that it was off to the caves! Chilligoe is in an area of karst with hundreds of caves in the area. There are some pretty spectacular limestone formations. The cave we went to is called Royal Arch Cave. It is about 10 km out of town. We hopped off the bus and met Ranger Bob.
We got our lights, and started walking along the path to the entrance of the cave.
The landscape is so cool. The deeply eroded limestone is such an alien sight jutting up out of the flat grassy landscape. On the way to the cave we saw a big Golden Orb Spider.
The webs have really cool zig-zag patterns in them. They are pretty poisonous spiders, so it is best to try to avoid them...
The cave itself has very large chambers, with spectacular formations covering every wall. Here are some views from our hour and half walk around the cave. We did do one little squeeze through which was fun, some people really did not like it, but it was a lot of fun for me!
Pretty cool eh! I would love to have spent a few days exploring the cave, but it is locked and very protected under park laws. There are only a few caves in the area which are open to self guided exploration.
Emma in a room with a collapsed ceiling. There were a few of those rooms in the cave which are pretty neat to see. It was a lot of fun to get back into a cave, and it was pretty neat to see the incredible calcite features.
Back to the hotel after that, a bit of free time and then cocktails. Tony the bus driver made them. It was a mix of his own creation called the "Tropical Outback". It was pretty good. I had four...After that it was supper at the pub. Steak and onions from the bar-b, as well as garlic bread and salads complimented the beer nicely.
One lovely walk along mainstreet, a gathering in a cabin, and many bottles of wine later it was bedtime. Not before I snuck in a picture of the sars. Unfortunately there was a bit of high cloud, and it was the full moon, so the sky was a bit washed out.
You Can see both bright and dark nebulas in this picture of the Milky Way. You can also see the Southern Cross a little above the tree to the left of the center.
I will continue on with day two tomorrow, an exciting adventure with balancing rocks, slag heaps, sunrises kangaroos, and wallabys!
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