05.05.10

We drove about an hour away to a town called Buchan to see the caves today! SUPER cute town, in the center of a bunch of rolling hills, and in a very remote part of Australia. It was very nostalgic, and here the leaves were really turning beautiful Autumn colors! That fall smell was everywhere. Even though it was kind of chilly outside, that warm Autumn feeling makes you kind of toasty on the inside! It's just strange that we are going through another fall so soon.
The caves are located in a park. They had camping grounds, several different caves and lots of hike paths. The cave we saw was called 'Fairy Cave' because of all the glittering calcite on the inside.
John and I have both been to a few caves, and all the ones we have ever seen have been cold. However, because of the high humidity in this area, the caves were actually warm if not HOT!
You figure that once you see one cave you have seen them all, but it's strange how much they vary from one another. I have seen much grander stalactites and stalagmites in other caves, but this cave had halagtites, which are curly! I have only ever heard of these; never actually seen them until today. They certainly had some of the most amazing bacon strips, which are thin stalactites. You can see the layers of rock through them when you put a light behind it and it has the tendency to look like a piece of bacon! The most incredible part was the calcite though. It looked as though it had flown down the sides of the cave, like water, and just froze. It was a pretty white color and sparkled like a million diamonds. It was my favorite part.
After the cave we took a hike through the woods to see the waterfall. The first animal we spotted was a lyre bird. It's a cousin of the peacock and has a set of long feathers on their behind. Ivana says that it is extremely rare to see these birds and that we were very lucky! The second animal we saw was a bird that came tumbling out a tree right as we were walking by. At first it looked like it was hurt or something, only to find out that it was two birds...in the middle of a mating ritual! The male was bright yellow with some black and the female looked like just a brown bird (still havn't been able to figure out what they are). He was dancing and puffing his feathers out...he started to sing to her, and all just a few feet away from us. After a few minutes he gave up and flew away. Ivana couldn't believe it! She said it must be John and I because she never see's things like that. John said he thinks I can talk to the animals. He's probably right. : )
The last creature was again, another bird. This time we only heard it...the kookaburras! They sound like they are laughing. Not just a gentle chuckle though, it sounds like they are rolling on the floor in tears! It was the first time I heard them laugh, and I couldn't help but laugh myself. John walked off the path a bit to try and get a picture of them without scaring them off. All of a sudden me and Ivana here this crazy, weird laser beam sound. I'm not kidding you, it sounded like something straight out of star wars; turns out it was the lyre bird again, and two of them! John got a glimpse of them but Ivana and I were too far away. We got it all on tape, so we will post it in the gallery.
The forest itself was so much different then back home. The humidity makes moss grow everywhere...and on everything. Seeing so much green inside the woods makes you feel like your inside a fairy tale. The forest was constantly changing too. Some parts the trees were really tall with full, bushy tops. Another part, the trees were shorter and lean and had wispy branches that just swayed in the wind. Then you would come to all the thick and wide trees whose bark just fell off in long strips. On the outside it was shades of brown but on the inside; shades of red and orange. My favorite part was when you got to all the tiny ferns. Only a feet or so tall, but they made the entire forest floor such a bright green. The trees had moss falling off its branches, and all the rocks were a soft, fuzzy green...it made me feel like I was kid again!
The hike was up hill and then down, up and down. Needless to say, we never found the waterfall, but saw SO much more!
Our last stop before home was at Tesslers Bridge. It was on the way to Lakes Entrance, and was tucked back into the woods. I guess they had built the bridge with some wood back in the 50's to help service the coal trains. It's not so often you see such a historic item left as it was years ago.
When we got home, we walked the dogs again, had dinner and got all our things packed and ready. We hop on a train back to Melbourne tomorrow morning.