Robot Claw

Lazy days in Newcastle. Eating too much trashy food, talking about the old days and having fun with mum.

I told mum I could draw a perfect likeness of anyone, and now (at her request) her wall is adorned with this photorealistic portrait of Nana Mouskouri. And it only took me 10 minutes!

I saw Kirsten yesterday, and she took me on a nostalgia-filled tour of my old high school, which she now works at. Here I am sitting in the same seat in the same room in which I took 4U mathematics 36 years ago. Kirsten’s mum taught me that class, and she was a great teacher. Kirsten sent her the photo and she said I was a “slightly naughty boy” 🙂

I mailed 6 lbs of candy home yesterday. Coincidentally that’s about the same mass I’ve gained by unfettered consumption of fast food and lollies! Every time I come here I go berserk for junk, and to be honest I’m a bit sick of it by now!

The rains are now gone and the weather is beautiful. It feels much warmer than recent years I’ve been here, a bit like an American spring. I’ve only got one more day here in Newcastle, and I think it may include some sunshine…

We returned to the caves this morning to visit the ‘cathedral cave’ which is the other they currently run tours through. This is the more famous cave, and we had high hopes.

We weren’t disappointed: it was just as breathtaking as yesterdays! It’s a very different cave, with much fewer stalagmites and stalactites but what it does have is enormous and the cave itself is massive.

It has three levels, each of which the guide took us through in order and at the deepest point we were about 45 m underground, which is about the height of a 10-story building.

Unlike yesterday’s cave this one shows evidence of human visits through the years via graffiti written in lamp or candle spot. Most are simple initials, and one is dated 1872 and looks like it could have been written yesterday. There are a few locations that were once painted (probably to amuse tourists) and the ‘pulpit’ on the large ‘cathedral’ stalagmite has a rotted Bible on top – a relic left after the last cave mass, which was held in 1966.

We spent a good hour inside and I liked how it was a very different experience from yesterday’s cave. These two are part of a 42-cave family and they used to have a third open for tours (The Phosphate Mine) which has been closed for years due to toxic gasses inside.

I’ve been to many caves in several countries and I’d have to say both of these at Wellington are amongst – if not the – most spectacular. They were absolutely worth the trip!

Oh and the snake warning was present for this tour as well. Our guide said they’d seen a black snake behind this seat a few weeks ago and it ‘took a snap’ at another guide! Watch for nasty snakes if you’re ever in the area 🙂

We woke early today in the hope we could visit a fire tower about an hour away from Coonabarabran. It was dark, and aside from trees looming over the road all we saw were endless clouds of bugs as we drove through them. Day dawned and we were forced to turn back due to a closed (dirt) road and once we got a chance to inspect the car bumper we saw this:

I think they’re mosquitoes!

We stopped at a few antique and op-shops along the way, but today’s goal was Wellington Caves which we reached about noon. Neither of us had done much research to preserve the surprise, and didn’t even know there were two caves. We bought tickets for one tour, and will do the other tomorrow.

The caves have been known for about 150 years, and in the late 19th century bones of megafauna were discovered inside. This included a diprotodon skull, which was a mammal about as big as a hippo and distantly related to a koala. The skeleton in the on-site gallery is shown next to a wombat for scale.

The cave entrance is about a half kilometer’s walk from the visitors center, and we got the usual safety spiel in advance from our guide ‘Westy’. Notable was the mention of snakes, including if we saw a brown snake (a man-killer) on the path to the cave the tour would be canceled and we’d receive a refund! Luckily, none were seen, although we did see a shed snakeskin.

The cave we toured today – Gaden cave – was incredibly abundant with ‘cave coral’. It was just Sue and I on the tour, and our guide was personably and knowledgeable and we spent almost an hour viewing the cave and hearing his stories.

Unlike every other cave I’ve visited this is a dry cave – which means no water or humidity – with a constant temperature of about 17 C. It was extremely pleasant inside, and you could probably comfortably live there!

Almost every wall was covered with stalactites and coral-like growths and they filled the vaulted roof high above us as well. Since there’s no water the cave is no longer ‘growing’ and these formations are as they were hundreds of millions of years ago.

It was beautiful and awe-inspiring and exceeded both of our expectations. This is apparently the lesser of their two caves, so we can’t wait to see the other one tomorrow!