Today we head off on a bit of a easter road trip. We are travelling with some of our lovely friends Drew and Dani this trip which is really lovely. We decided to meet up at the Big Miner in Ballarat. We had walkie talkies to split between the cars and food and then the plan was to continue together.
We went to a afe to try and get out of the rain but it wasn’t open. A few seconds later the owners came to the door and said we could come in early even though it wasn’t open til 10. Turns out it was this huge antique store. Anyway long story short we spent about an hour in the shops which was more like a market with heaps of little stalls. We ended up buying a few things. I got a cool ring and a rubber duck planter. We then of course saw the big miner. It was then back on the road with the next stop being lunch.
For lunch we had a quick stop at Di’s and Chris’ pies which as always was good. It was then off towards the giant koala. We were cutting it close with our tour so we only stopped briefly for Drew to take a picture punching the koala and then we’re back on the road.
I really loved having the walkie talkie between the cars. Not only were they practical for driving through areas with no reception but also the constant “oh did you see that” was so much fun. After 5 hours of driving we crossed the border into South Australia.
We arrived at Naracoorte Caves which is a UNESCO World heritage site. It is one of the best places to see fossils and it holds so much history. We will be doing the fossil tours later in the weekend but today was about the bat tour and Blanche cave.
Our tour guide named Frank picked us up and took us to the bat viewing room. From here we got to look at the bat cave through the infrared cameras. This is unobtrusive to the bars which was nice. There were so many of them. The bats here are Southern Bentwing bats and they are so tiny and cute. They are considered to be Critically Endangered so I am guessing there may only be a few places they are left. Out here they keep the mozzies down as well as other little insects. They were very cool to see.
We then got to go to Blanche cave. It was an ok cave but you can tell it has had damage from people. Compared to some of the others that’s were pristine. We saw some dog sites but missed a lot of information as Dani and I lagged behind trying to take photos.
It was a nice start to our little road trip. We had a quick dinner at the Local pub and then used the walkie talkies to communicate between rooms. We have a big day tomorrow :)