Thierings on Tour

We were lucky enough to be treated like royalty in the morning with all the breakfast options we could imagine and hospitality all around!

On our way to Rockhampton zoo we made a stop at Charlotte’s work for some delicious milkshakes, coffee and babycino and the highlight for the girls was seeing Charlotte at the counter as she took our order. It was since voted as the best milkshake place in the area by the girls ☺️

We explored the zoo and the girls enjoyed seeing some new animals such as salt water crocodiles, otters, gibbons and macaws. What an amazing place, considering it is run entirely on donations!

After that it was time to burn some energy at Kershaw Gardens. Whilst we didn’t make it to the splash park area we had originally come for, the playground more than made up for it instead. What a playground it was!!! There were little cars you could drivearound a track, swings of every variety and climbing ropes with timers that allowed you to race each other in a game. I reckon the girls could have spent all day here.

But we had another stop planned for the day, which was the Capricorn Caves. 

The entrance to the caves was surrounded by dry, semi evergreen rainforest, which means that there are long bouts of dry season throughout the year. There are also some ferns growing out of the cave rocks that are unique to Australia, which is pretty cool.

The caves are actually above sea level, so there were minimal stalagmites and stalactites growing. In fact the only one we saw was estimated to be growing at 1cm every 100 years.

We made our way through the different paths with Jazzy always leading the way right behind the guide. There were so many beautiful parts to the caves and it really boggles your mind to think that something could be 390 million years old.

We visited Cathedral Cave as part of the tour, which lived up to its name in terms of acoustics. They have a speaker built in with special lights to show some cool effects, followed by total pitch black. It was quite amazing to be in total darkness (a bit scary for some of the kids too). 

After a few more caves it was time to leave this limestone (calcium carbonate) beast, which is apparently similar in composition to bones rather than sand, like I had always thought. There we are – you learn something new every day! 

Back at Ross and Amanda’s we were yet again spoiled by a delicious pork roast dinner and the girls crashed after a huge day of exploring.

Kms travelled – 70

.