Monday...9 February 2015

I know I keep saying we did this or that "yesterday", but all this touristing is very tiring and I find that I am often just too weary to write this blog at the end of a long day of travel and energetic site seeing!
So.......yesterday we were up early again to travel to Buchan. That is Buchan with B people although Himself has been having some fun with how he says it. I have yet to tell him that one particular arm of my extended family may take it on themselves to seek him out and give him a jolly good thrashing with their sporrans for his disrespect!
Anyway way back when there was still dinosaurs in our back paddocks, and Australian stuff was still taught in our schools, we learnt about the Buchan (Vic) and Jenolan (NSW) caves.
Having arrived in Bairnsdale and looked at the local signposts it quickly became clear that we were somewhere near Buchan. Turns out it is just about an hour away so of course we had to have a look.
There are four caves in this particular system but only two are currently open to the general public, access to the others is only for members of caving clubs as they require some experience to negotiate.
We toured both caves, and really how many times can you say "wow" or gasp in delight as each new section of the cave is revealed when the guide turns on the lighting as we reach different sections of the system.
Caves are awesome stuff. Mother Nature makes great things with her "playdough". She is a bit slow, often taking thousands or millions of years to finish a project but we all love her work. This shot is in Royal Cave.

The second cave is called Fairy Cave. Both were spectacular. Fairy cave had some low level areas that required a bit of waddling like a duck to negotiate but I think this cave was more interesting than the Royal cave.

After lunch at the Buchan Roadhouse we headed back to base but took the scenic route and came back via the town of Lakes Entrance. Although there are 19 caravan parks listed for this beach side town, a quick look yesterday had us crossing most of them off as too small for our big rig!
When we got back to Bairnsdale we visited again with our North West neighbours and bless them, we had afternoon tea with home made scones and home made jams. Wonderful. I drank the teapot dry. I find tourist stuff thirsty work! Sad to leave them but no doubt we will catch up again, hopefully it will not be so long this time.
We have added extra time to our stay here to rest and recover from all our recent activity. I felt OK when I got up this morning but the more I move the more my legs protest. There are an awful lot of stairs and steps in caves!!