After heading out of Hervey Bay it was a long drive to Rockhampton, were were worried a little by the amount of rain and the talk of flooding but we needed to get to Airlie Beach for our Whitsunday tour. After what felt like 10 hours of driving we arrived at Rockhampton which we learnt was the beef captial of Australia and the river looked full to bursting and so we decided to drive a little further to Yeppoon where we found a campsite
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| Our campsite view |
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| Drinking out of a paper bag |
Yepoon was pretty small but we found a site just outside of the town, right on the beach, for a decent price, got some booze and settled in for the night. Through the wonders of modern technology we managed to order a pizza online to be delivered to the campsite. Somehow I had managed to break the screen on my phone during the Fraser Island trip so we couldn't see any numbers or texts or anything. Our pizza came eventually and we filled our fat faces and sat outside in the insanely sweaty heat. Bindya was a little worried about insects in the toilets so I went to check it out first. I came back with the great news (or so I thought) that there were hardly any insects in the toilets because there were so many geckos in there eating them all. Bindya's face suggested to me that maybe she wasn't so keen on geckos either despite my best attempts to big them up. We went to the toilet together so that I could protect her...
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| At the caves |
Next morning was a quick drive up to Capricorn Caves which is just north of Rockhampton. (At the time of writing this, Rockhampton is 9 metres under water...)
We got a ticket for the caves but had to wait about 20 mins which we occupied by taking photos of toads and turkeys and standing in the shade out of the torrential rain. Our guide took us and about 10 other people into the caves which are mainly overground and showed us around. The main cave was called 'the Cathedral Cave' which was very pretty and the site for weddings and concerts and stuff.
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| Bat Poo Floor |
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| The Camel |
He played some music and we appreciated the 'near perfect' acoustics before we headed up this tiny little 'zig zag' passage. I nearly panicked at this point as I thought I was getting stuck and got claustrophobic. At the end of it was a swinging bridge but he wouldn't let us cross it as the rain had made it slippery. Throughout the caves there was this sound that was a bit like running water – it turned out that it was the sound of thousands of tiny bats living in the caves Bindya kept doing impressions of The Goonies once she learned this... Also, the floor was basically made up of bat poo, which impressed the children in the group (and us...).
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| In the catherdral |
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| The Goonies Caves |
After a morning at the caves we (Neil) drove us up to Airlie Beach which again took hours and we didnt arrive till late so we managed to get a caravan park in the centre of town which was basically full of British teenagers on a gap year or something. After drinks and dinner we had a early night as we had the Whitsunday tour the next day.
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| In the caves |
Day 9 and 10 Capricorn Caves
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