Day 1 – Crossing the Border

Today’s the day I get to tick another Aussie state off the list! We were on the road by 8.15, heading to a bakery for a quick brekkie stop before heading towards The Big Miner in Ballarat where we met up with Amy and Anthony, our travel buddies for this trip. We had only planned on stopping here to take a picture with the big statue, and perhaps get a cup of something from the cafe here, but while hiding from the rain under the cover of the Ballarat Vintage & Collectables Market, we were invited in early and we couldn’t say no to that.

This was a surprise addition to the itinerary, but it was such a delight! It looked to be installed in an old farmhouse building, which was very long and had different layers and sections full, and I mean FULL of incredible little knick knacks, clothing, oddities, furniture, everything! We spent way too much time exploring, risking being late to our next tour. We ended up leaving with a few treasures and started off towards The Giant Koala, the last stop before crossing the border.

We only briefly stopped here, long enough to take a couple of pictures and stretch for a second, and then head off to the Naracoorte Caves just across the border. We were booked in to see the bats in Blanche cave with our tour guide Frank. He met us out front of the visitors centre and took us towards the bat viewing centre. On the way there though, he stopped us on some black gravel to explain that every time we stand on black gravel in the area, it indicates that we are standing on top of a cave! There are plenty of bits of black on the ground here, which I thought was fascinating. When we got to the viewing centre, we were sat on benches around the room, with massive screens set up, where we were able to see a live feed of the bats in one of the caves there. Frank was able to zoom in with their infrared cameras, meaning we were able to get a close look at the cute creatures, without disturbing them at all.

After Frank’s talk, we were lead down to Blanche Cave, which at the moment is pretty devoid of bats, but we were able to explore alongside our guide and see the interesting limestone and calcium deposits, making their beautiful formations on the roof, floor and in between. We are coming back to Naracoorte caves on Monday to tour their fossil cave, which they are better known for, but in Blanche cave we were able to see a sneak peak of a couple of staged fossil dig sites, and a couple of real ones (it might have been a possum that crawled in and ended its life there, but I think that still counts). There were some pretty incredible photo opportunities that we took the time for, so we remained at the back of the group for most of the tour, so we missed a few things unfortunately, but I was honestly happy just exploring the caves ourselves anyway.

After the tour, we finally made it to our accommodation at about 5.30, which after a 5.30 wake up and a full day on the road, was a huge relief. We are all very tired. We went into town to grab some dinner at the only pub open on Good Friday, and headed back here to finish up the night. We have rooms at a Motel right next to each other, so we’ve been chatting with our walkie-talkies through the wall as I’ve been typing this up, just trying to stay awake. We have another hour and a bit drive into Mount Gambier to the Tantanoola Caves, which should be a lot of fun. But right now, sleep is calling.