Australia 2017 - Day 9

Monday we woke and Lexie was still complaining of a sore ear so we took her off to the doctors,  Doctor couldn't see anything because of the wax build up so gave us a prescription for antibiotics and some stuff to clear out the wax.  Thankfully after a clearing the wax out and just a single application of the antibiotics she was all fine again.

We were lucky to be able to get an early doctors appointment so we were still able to be on the road by about 10:20.  The plan for today was to head out to Wombeyan caves.

We went straight down the freeways to Mittagong arriving around 12:30 and stopped for a picnic  lunch at a park next to Lake Alexandra.

You only just barely fit in there Josh

After lunch we took the twisty turny, windy dirt road across to Wombeyan caves.  It was a great drive, down twisting and turning down the side of one mountain.  At one stage we went through a tunnel carved through the mountain by convicts.

then across the river at the bottom.

And up the other side.  Just outside the Wombeyan Caves National Park we stopped to collect some firewood so we could BBQ our dinner tonight.

We had booked to stay at the Old Post office at Wombeyan Caves - an old three bedroom place that turned out to be stuck in the 1950's - in a good way of course.

Grandma and Grandpa relaxing in front of our cabin

lounge room

Kitchen

The kids got to experience their first outdoor toilet - thankfully a flush one, you just had to go outside the back door to get to it - really fun at 3am.

The first thing Josh noticed when we got there was a little goanna down by the dry river.

There were also Kangaroos all over the place.

Since it was already almost 2pm we headed straight for our first cave.  The Fig Tree cave.  This involved a long walk up a steep path to the top of the hill and then halfway down the other side to the cave entrance.  There was a self guided tour through this cave so as you walked through lights came on a pre-recorded commentary started.  It was very dry in the cave, but some of the formations were quite cool.

One of the coolest things was a stalactite that had broken off and you could see the cross section.

You could also see the spot it had broken off of and the new stalactites forming.

The cave came out in Victoria's Arch an area where the cave had caved in.

This "Jabba the Hutt" formation was one of Josh's favourites.

When we got back we did some more kangaroo spotting.

We then decided to headed back up the hill to check out another cave.  This time we headed a bit further afield.  We walked out towards the limestone canyon and tinted cave.

Taking a short break on the walk there

This cave is much less developed - just a single button to press to make a few lights come on for a a short while.  Even the entrance was all grown over.

It was quite a short cave.

The green and blue colours that give tinted cave its name

But at the end opened out onto a limestone gorge.

It was a truely superb gorge.

We went back through the gorge and then Lexie Josh and I followed the path down into the gorge

too steep for Grandma!

where we found a fantastic swimming hole.

Looking back up at the cave that we had been in

More caves in the cliffs

trying out the water in the gorge

It's cold!

Cold but beautiful

We headed back out of the gorge

Heading up out of the gorge

and trudged home - only to find an interloper in our yard.

and a whole bunch in the field next door.  They weren't fazed by us at all.

For Dinner we lit a fire in the BBQ outside and cooked on the hot plate.

roasting marshmallows over the dying embers of our fire