There And Back Again. Chapter Thirteen. Victoria Fossil Cave, Part Zwei

Remember, it's a four parter for the Fossil Cave. This is 2 of 4 and it consists of WP's pics of the cave MINUS the fossils. Parts 3 and 4 will have fossils, trust me.

But first, a bird picture. You know, rainbow lorikeets can be very mischevious. Here we have a poor, harmless turtledove landing in the middle of a gang of thugs and one is about to do something Milhouse knows all about from Nelson Muntz:

WEDGIE!!!

Ahem, back to the cave. Still in the Victoria Fossil Cave. Here's the layout in case you don't feel like scrolling down to the previous post:




As usual, here is a link to the clickable, expandable, thumbnail page at flickr. WP had the Fuji 6500fd and it's flash isn't nearly as "harsh" as the 5600 I had. So the colours on her pics are much more natural.

Anyways, here's her slideshow and remember you can play it full screen, no worries.




Up next: the two fossil chambers!

There And Back Again. Chapter Twelve. Victoria Fossil Cave Part Prime

Yes, that means there'll be a part secunde, tierce, and quarte. Ahem.

Meaning this is part one of four. One is YT (that'd be me) pics of the fossil cave sans fossils. Zwei will be WP (Most Wonderful Woman In The Entire World) pics sans fossils. Tres will be YT pics WITH fossils. Lastly will be WP fossilised.

There's a strong possibility I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight...

You'll get a flickr slideshow of the 47 pics today. And, of course, a link to the thumbnail page if you'd like to view them individually.

But first, an Australian Bird Picture. Went out walkies this morn with WP. We headed over to Warraparinga to see what the lake is like and what the waterbird situation is. Got some really good shots of an Australian White Ibis (used to be known as the Sacred Ibis). But you'll just have to wait till I'm done with the Naracoorte trip cus this dude deserves his own post with a boatload of pictures.

However, I got one of the best bird pics I've taken for y'all to look at. It is a Noisy Miner. It's a type of aussie honey-eater, and you can probably guess how it got the noisy name. Never got close enough to get a really good picture before now.

Here you are; One Noisy Miner (also called a Black-Faced Miner):




And now (as promised) my pics of the Victoria Fossil Cave without the fossils.

*Caution, there are lots of drippy spires hanging from the ceilings in the cave pictures. If this gives you motion sickness then I'd suggest either dramamine or a couple of shots of tequila before viewing the pictures.*

And don't forget, you can view them all as clickable, expandable thumbnails, right here.

Oh wait, here's some maps of the cave:











And here's the slideshow! Remember, just click on the little box in the lower right hand corner of the slideshow box to view it fullscreen.

There And Back Again. Chapter Ten. Still In The Darkness

Yes, we've got one more day in the Wet Cave. Actually, we were in it for only an hour in real time, but it's going to be a day in blogging time.

The chambers in Wet Cave are really huge. Very high ceilings and massive stalactites. Add to that the tree ferns in the entranceway and it's very impressive.

I've picked 31 of my best photos from the cave, so as before you get them in slideshow format and also a link to the flickr page for the clickable thumbnails.

There has been quite a few rainbow lorikeets hanging around lately. Since I haven't put up too many purdy burdie pictures due to the caving posts, I figured y'all might wanna see a few of the birds.

Just a few, mind you. Well, at least enough to set siege to the KoKon Bunker.



















As you can tell, they can get quite enthusiastic during brekky.

I, however, am not feeling too enthusiastic this morning. Last night I "did" my back. Nothing new as I've had to be very careful with it over the years. It's actually been 16 months since I've done it this bad. The pisser of it this time is that I did absolutely NOTHING to account for it.

Last night we had a nice Mexican meal (there are no good Mexican restaurants in Adelaide so to do it right I've got to make it myself), watched a couple of episodes of Torchwood on dvd (I was comfortably ensconced in the bean bag), got up, scritched the beast (didn't even need stitches afterwards), and started to walk to the back to shut down mission control for the night.

As I went through the kitchen I noticed my back was starting to ache in an oh-so-familiar-way. By the time I got to the back room I was in agony.

Shit. Gonna be a fun week.

But that won't stop me from posting all about the Naracoorte Cave trip, no sirree! Besides, I seemed to have picked up some new readers lately and I'm sure they'll want to see all my scribbling on maps (we took a different route home, unlike Bilbo) and hear about the nice country towns, and villages, and shacksinthemiddleofnowhere. Besides, I'm sure you want to see the pictures of the giant 30 foot lobster.

So stay tuned, eh?

Meanwhile, we get to finish out Wet Cave. This slideshow has 31 of my pics from the cave where I tried to give you an idea of the scale of this sucka. No one in OhighO should feel claustrophobic, and no one in Massatoochits should get seasick.

As usual, here's a link to the clickable thumbnail page, courtesy of flickr.

And here's the slideshow. Remember, just click on the little box on the lower right of the slideshow to play it full screen. It's worth it!





Next post we take lunch at Bool Lagoon. But first I need to refresh my icepack, get some liniment on my back, use the magic spray, score some codeine, and get some liquid muscle relaxants.

There and Back Again. Chapter Nine. Wet Cave

After we finish going through the Wonambi Fossil Centre (after having a snack and a cup of tea) we then proceeded to the Wet Cave.

The Wet Cave has huge caverns and the main entrance is down through a roof collapse. Fortunately, there are stairs that wind down into the cave. And from there, you are on your own.

Well, not really. There is a motion sensor lighting system set up, and all the various "squeezes" are roped off. If you do the "Adventure Caving" tours, this cave is where you will start. In fact as we left I got to see a group coming out of what seemed to be an impossibly narrow cleft. I've since found out there are loads of other chambers that are accessible via Wet Cave on the "Adventure Caving" tours.

Next time I WILL be doing that!

The chambers in the Wet Cave are massive. They are so big that in either this cave or the Blanche Cave there used to be "soirees" or "balls" down in the caves. The acoustics must have been awesome! I've read conflicting reports about which cave the parties 100 years ago occurred, so any help figuring that out would be helpful, ta.

Before I give you the slideshow of the pictures WP took, I need to tell you that I can see in the dark.

I'm serious.

I can.

If there is light, I can see darned well. I've even written a post about it a few years ago, but I don't have the time to find it right now (I'm making dinner as I type this). But trust me, I can see in the dark.

You'll notice that I have my prescription sunglasses on in these photos that WP took. Why? Cus there was enough light in this cave so that I didn't even notice that I hadn't changed to my other pair.

Just another way to rose-tint my world, eh?

Oh, and I want some feedback about the slideshows. Do you prefer the slideshows or fullsize pics on the blog or thumbnails on the blog. Lemme know, eh?

Speaking of that, here's a link to the thumbnails of WP's pics of the wet cave.

And here's her slideshow:




I have to run, I've got spanish rice on, shredded mex pork, homemade refried beans going, WP will be chopping the salad, and I'm serving it up with homebrewed cervaza.

Oh, and the wild parrots are outside calling me names...

There And Back Again. Chapter Seven. Same Journey In The Dark.

*please note this version of the story includes addendum number one and appendix A*

Ok, that joke is probably worn out by now...

Today you get to see the pics that WP (Wifey-Poo) took, along with a couple more of mine. You still be down in The Alexandra Cave so you haven't missed the fossil centre, no worries.

Why am I showing you WP's pics even though they're from the same cave as the ones you saw yesterday? Cus not only is WP's camera different from the one YT was using, but we both have a different photographers eye. You'll see what I mean when you compare this slideshow to mine from Chapter Six.

Before you get to see the pics, I have to say that I'm terribly disappointed with y'all. SOMEONE should have "got" the pi joke in Chapter four. Ah, wait a sec, my bad. The reference and joke were both so obvious you musta felt it beneath you to remark about.

Sorry, just woke up from a nap and my brain isn't working yet, gimme a sec while the caffeine kicks in.

A
H
H
H
... I feel better now.

Just remembered: I have a PSA for you!

Do not look at pictures of drippy cave things if you are susceptable to motion sickness or have not had enough to drink yet.

There, you've been warned.

And I have some info for those of you who would like to do your own crayon scrawling on your owns maps. There's a wonderful little, FREE, program available on the system of tubes. It's called Irfanview. It's made by a bloke from Bosnia who graduated from The Vienna Institute of Technology and he's had this program available for a decade now (it's updated regularly). I love the batch conversion feature, and the algorithms for resizing/resampling are darned fine. He's just recently added a simple paint dialog so you can colour to your hearts content.

It's free. It lives at www.irfanview.com

Don't be fooled by how small the program is; when you start messing about with it you'll find it does a great many things. Did I mention it's free?

And now for the slideshow of WP's pictures from The Alexandra Cave. Remember you can view it full screen by clicking on the little box with the arrows in the lower right hand corner of the slideshow.



You will note that we take different kinds of shots.

Here's the link through to the flickr set of WP's Alexandra cave pics. There's a whole page of thumbnails and you can view to your hearts' content, no worries.


This cave descended to a depth of 18 metres. I'll save you the trouble of multipying 18 by 3.3 and tell you that we were 60 feet underground. Fortunately, there's been a lot of excavation between the chambers so that tourists can walk through. However, the passageways between each chamber used to be (and a lot still are) very tight squeezes.

I want you to have a look at this picture:

You see the light up at the top of the photo? That light is on top of the original dirt that had filled this section. The people who went through here over a hundred years ago had NO idea what was down there and were doing it using oil lamplights all while squeezing through a passageway 18 inches high. Wee, FUN!

Isn't limestone and Karst terrain neat?

In one chamber there's a reflecting pool. The rangers and staff do not add any water to it. If it dries out, so be it. Ummmmmm, constant 98% humidity. Do you think it'll dry out? The pool is only a couple of centimetres deep and there's some stalactites that are forming above it.

This makes for some great reflections! We both tried as best we could both with and without flash to get decent shots of this. I'll let you decide if we succeeded.


I know it's blurry, but I didn't have a tripod.

This next one is a shot of the pool. I was very pleased to get this.



Same shot but with the flash on, you can definitely tell how shallow the pool is:



WP's camera has a stronger flash and a longer zoom so she could get some great shots from farther away. She got some great colours here:



This one from her is even better:



When you take a passage around the left side you have a good view of the formation above the pool:



After Alexandra we had a quick cuppa, then went into the fossil centre. That'll be covered in the next chapter, but feel free to page ahead if you'd like. Oh wait, this isn't a book... Guess you'll just have to wait.

There And Back Again. Chapter Six, A Journey In The Dark

Section one, subparagraph 3, item two.

Alexandra Cave Part One

Why part one? Well, that's cus these are the pictures that YT (Yours Truly, that's me) took, as opposed to the pics WP (Wifey-Poo) had tooken. We have different styles of foa-toa-graffiness-itude-eeality. I also have awesome spelling skills.

Part two of Alexandra Cave will be, of course, the pics from WP. But you probably could have figured that out without me help.

I have a lot to tell y'all about Naracoorte. Friendly place, never been in a friendlier place, in fact. But that'll have to wait as I've kept all of you (is it up to 20 yet?) on the edge of your seats (and don't the edges of the chairs make your feet fall asleep? Well, for me it does) long enough.

We started with an hour long tour of the Alexandra Cave. It was supposed to be 45 mins, but SOMEONE (YT?) just kinda had to stretch it out a wee bit :)

I've about 50 pics I want to show you, but I don't think I should embed them all. See? Sometimes I think even when I don't!

What I've done is make a slideshow for you. The controls *should* be pretty well self-explanatory. I'm also putting up a direct link through to the flickr page where all the full size images live.

Let me know what you think, and if there's any shots that anyone wants ultrafullsize just lemme know, no worries.

Firstly, here's the direct link to where the pics live at flickr. Just a reminder, you can click on any of the thumbnails to see a larger pic. However, you want to make sure you then click the "all sizes" button to see the pic at 1000 by 750 pixels.

Aaaaaaannnnnnnndddddddd, here's the slideshow!





Just click on that big ole friendly arrow in the middle to play the show.

But of course you want to see the pics big ole full sized like. Right? Well, notice that in the lower right hand corner of the slideshow (once you've got it playing) (just rollover it cus it don't bite) there's a little box with four arrows pointing outward? Ah, you found it, good on ya! Just click on that box and it'll play full screen on your monitor. Cool, no?

There's a whole bunch of other controls and options for you to use and play with. Go on, have fun!

PS: I am disappointed with my readers... absolutely NO ONE realised that the lead singer and song writer from AC/DC (of which I bastardised the lyrics of the song Big Balls to become Big Claws) hailed from the same little town in Western Australia as did Sir James Barrie.

Ok, maybe that one was just a bit obscure...

There And Back Again. Chapter Five: The Black Gate Is Closed

Before we even think about starting with this post, here's a beaut pic of the goal:

Just click on it for full sizedness, you'll be happy.


Da-da-da-DUM!

But first, let's have just another picture of a sawdust-stuffed cat-hide thingy that no taxidermist would ever take credit for:



And how's abouts a big ole aussie shout out to a bloke who hails from Peter Pan land?

I've got big claws
I've got big claws
They're such big claws
And they're dirty big claws
And he's got big claws
And she's got big claws
But we've got the biggest claws of them all!

So my query to you (I think I'm up to 13 readers now, woo-hoo!) is what is the connection betwixt Peter Pan and the claws of a cockatoo? No more hints from moi, so start your googling fingers!

Back to the show, cus the show must go on.

Upon our arrival in Naracoorte, we drove to a motel. A motel with which I had previously (like 2 months previous) made bookings for YT and WP. They have BBQ facilities and microwave ovens in each room. That suited us just fine since I had already prepared a meal that only needed to be nuked upon our arrival.

Food for the ensuing two mornings was gonna be eggs, bacon, toast, etc. The evening meal on the second day was also ready to be cooked.

This particular motel (not naming names) is situated right smack dab in the middle of hustlin' bustlin' Naracoorte. It also had a "No Vacancy" sign out front and that made me happy that we had reservations (in every sense of the word).

Hmmmm, Mr Downes? No, I can't find that name at all. Could it perhaps be under another name?

Needless to say, the conversation to check in did not go as planned. I was nice. So was WP. In fact, she was the first to point out that even if the owner (who I spoke with on the phone) did show up and remember me or my accent (almost ten years now and no aussie accent at all) that there wouldn't be room anyways since they are booked out.

We certainly didn't want to toss someone out, and they could find no record of us ever making a booking or giving them a cc number for the deposit.

Fortunately, everything always works out for me. Has for the last 5 decades.

We always travel with me little ole campstove. It's neat, compact, and cheap. Folds up to the size of a small briefcase, and that includes the butane cartridge. I made five meals offa that puppy on this trip and didn't even need to put a fresh butane cartridge in it.

I also noted a few other motels on our way into "town". Two of them had vacancy signs posted. And there was even a caravan park (love em!!!). And a big ole swimmin' hole with bbq facilities!

No worries mates!

We ended staying at a Comfort Inn. However, this was not a normal Comfort Inn. This Inn was the VERY ORIGINAL INN FROM THE SCOTTISH FOUNDER OF NARACOORTE. You can read all about it here.

The ole WM (William Macintosh) didn't have bbq or any cooking type stuff, so we thought we'd have a looksie through town to find a barbie. Turns out that we ate 4 meals over by the big swimmin' hole that had a barbie (too slow though, used me own cooker) and a fairly sizable swimmin' hole.

The swimmin' hole in Naracoorte is very cool. Size of 7 oly-pools it is. Yep, neato:


Never woulda found this place if the reservations hadn't been lost. See? It all works out, dunna why but it just does.

There's also a great tile mosiac on the crappers by the pool. Have a look:



I think the artist had a huge supply of disused tiles cus she made awesome stuff out of rejects:



Here's where we is, just click on the pics to bring em up full size:



And I just HAD to git the crayola crayons out :)



And just cus I think overhead fotos (like, maybe, birdseye?) are neat, here's where we wuz:



Oops, gotta git the paint out:



Just a gentle reminder to y'all: if you want to see a pic larger than life then just click it!

And here are two reasons to continue along with the saga --just click the pics for big ole huge full-sized goodness!