Caves & Fords & rocks & things

This morning we got up fairly early so we could pack our car, that is vacate our cabin so we could go on our tours around Chillagoe and a cave. We were joined at breakfast by Brian and Caroline whom we had met the night before at dinner and then by several apostle birds who thought we might have something to offer them in the way of food. I naturally had my camera at the ready after all the experiences with wildlife we had been having! We headed off with Gary after brekkie to the Chillagoe Caves National Park which is very nearby and met Ranger Bob who took us on our tour of the Donna Cave. It was quite different to Jenolan caves we had seen earlier in our trip obviously being in an entirely different part of Australia and having formed from different rocks. There were quite a few areas that we had to walk with our heads down and backs slightly bent but it was not strenuous until we had to climb the several steps up out of the cave and back into the sunlight. As with most photography of difficult subjects we learn with experience and I found that if I changed my white balance setting to tungsten instead of auto it gave much truer colour. The formations as with Jenolan were spectacular and a wonder of nature especially when you hear how long it took for them to develop like that.
Next Gary picked us up for our tour with him around the area. We went to see where the marble is mined – yes marble! As you drive into Chillagoe you see huge blocks of marble just sitting in among the grass and trees. Chillagoe it turns out is full of marble and it is mined, cut and shipped off for sale from there. We saw how marble develops with big crystals by looking at broken pieces but it was just amazing to see the size of the pieces that were just sitting there in the bush looking so out of place. Then Gary took us to some spectacular scenery at what is known as the Ramparts because it looks just like a castle wall with ramparts from the distance. We climbed up and looked at the rocks and some aboriginal paintings that are there and the spectacular view from there also. Gary showed us a rock that is rhomboidal in formation and when you break it, it always in the same way or on the same angle so you can break two separate pieces and they will butt together nicely. We can’t remember what the rocks are called though – oops! Following this we saw the local golf course which amused Fin no end since it is just there in the bush with no green grass to speak of and very rough ground but the funniest part is that the greens if you can call them that are white because they are made with crushed marble! Next we saw a Bower bird’s bower with shells and pieces of coloured glass all accumulated at the entrance and then we went to the old copper smelter and Gary explained how they found copper in Chillagoe and hoped there was plenty more but there wasn’t and the smelter was out of action very quickly. We saw the big slag heap which is made up of the molten waste that hardened into a big solid heap; it looked really strange.
Last but not least we went to see Tommy Prior, a local character who has an amazing collection of vehicles mainly Fords but some real old classics that would be worth a mint. And not only that but he keeps many of them in good working order too! If you are a Ford enthusiast you couldn’t miss seeing this collection and having a chat with old Tom. Gary’s tour was a good selection of things to see with only a morning to see them in. He knows the area well and is happy to stop for snapshots too.
We had a cuppa back at the Cabins, had a quick look at the souvenir shop then got on our way to Atherton. On the way out from Chillagoe we were again struck by the amazing rock formations, the cows warning sign which is different to any we have seen before and then all along the road the termite mounds or ant hills, especially the little very cone shaped ones which seemed to be very prolific in one section which had very orange soil.
We stopped briefly at Mareeba to do some shopping and have lunch then got to Atherton by about 3pm. We got all our stuff into the cabin, tested the internet connection here – hooray it is free wireless broadband! - Then tried to get to Lake Eacham to meet Ian, Rita and the kids for a barbecue dinner. We couldn’t rely on the TomTom this time. He let us down badly since he didn’t’ have Lake Eacham or any way of finding it so we went to the information at Yungaburra and made it to the Lake by about 4.30pm. We had a lovely barbie with Ian, Rita, some friends of theirs and kids it is a beautiful spot with lots of bird life including bush turkeys, and honey eaters and one of the little girls came rushing out to tell us there was a python in the girls toilets. It turns out it was curled up between the corrugated iron roof and the beam. It didn’t move and, yes, I took a photo anyway. We followed Ian’s car back to their place for a cuppa since the roads are very dark and we couldn’t rely on Tom to get us there. It was great seeing them again and seeing the renovations they had done to their house since we were there three years ago. We managed to get back to our cabin using the TomTom this time and then the big task of catching up with three days of BLOG. So here it is!