Queensland:- Capricorn Caves

(13/8/2017 – 14/8/2017)

After turning off the highway and onto a dirt track which we drove for what seemed an eternity ( Thanks to the GPS!!) we finally arrived at Capricorn Caves!!   They are located about 23 kms north of Rockhampton.    We thought this would be something a little different to visit and stay overnight.

There were a number of caves tours to do but we decided on the Cathedral Cave Tour which ran for 1 hour and its about a 1km walk through the caves.  The last tour was at 4.00 pm so we booked into that one and we were the only ones with the tour guide so we got our own personal tour.

I have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed the caves tour.    Wow, just fascinating and very interesting how these caves form millions of years ago.   These limestone caves are one of the largest privately owned cave systems in Australia.

The site’s history in tourism started in the 1880s, when Norwegian John Olsen settled in the area. His sons discovered the caves while looking for their horses and three years later, John opened the caves to tourists. This makes it Queensland’s longest-running tourist attraction.

They even have an area set up called ‘The Cathedral’ so you can get married in the Caves!!!   We sat in the pews and the tour guide played a song called ‘Alleluha’ .   OMG, it was just beautiful, I got a bit goosebumpy actually.  As the song played the lights slowly dimmed until it was completely black with the song still playing.   What an experience!!!!  The music was crystal clear and there was no echo as you might expect in the caves.  The tour guide said the acoustics and music is better in these caves  than in the Sydney Opera House!!!!   Andrew did a video recording but it wont do it any justice compared to being there in the moment!!!

They also hold Underground Operas in the Caves – usually one weekend in May and November annually.

We left Capricorn Caves in the morning and headed up to Mackay which was about 3 1/2 hours drive away.   That’s about the longest drive we have done in 1 day.   We found a Hotel/Pub to stay overnight (Leap Hotel, The Leap).   It was free camping but the Hotel did request patronage so we had dinner and drinks there.      It was a huge very old fashioned country pub – good food too!!

(13/8/2017 – 14/8/2017)