Cave-raving fun!

“Oh wowsers, I can see bats mum… tiny bats and pretty moths on all the walls!”

These are the words of my excited 6 year old daughter Marli echoing around me as I follow her into the gorgeous Cathedral Cave. Looking high above I spot the little bats flying happily through the most amazing natural ‘Cathedral’ shaped cavern I have seen.

We are exploring one of the Capricorn Coasts most famous attractions – the Capricorn Caves, and it sure is a stunning sight. As we follow our guide through the limestone cave we spot bubbly cave coral formations, stalactites, stalagmites, dangling fig-tree roots and more.

Located just 30 minutes north of Rockhampton this is a wonderful destination for all ages to enjoy. The Cathedral Cave Tour is the most popular of their cave tours and is also wheelchair accessible. As a popular venue for weddings and even underground Opera it’s definitely a sight (and sound) to behold as the acoustics are unreal. We love this cave so much that we even take a moment to stand on the altar and renew our wedding vows with the kids at our side for a bit of fun.

Slip, Slide and Climb

For the adventurous – like us, there is also adventure caving tours. Donning helmets and head torches, our family friendly tour had us channeling our inner ‘worm’ as we slid and slipped our way through tiny holes that opened up to reveal stunning hidden chambers within the cave. This was a wonderful team building activity for us and a hit for our mini blondies – even with the occasional ‘spook out’ which has us turning our torches off all at once!! Eeeeek – I dare you to try it!

Diggin’ It

The newly added Fossil tour was also a big hit with our family. We travelled back in time to discover the fossils of ancient creatures, meeting giant prehistoric beasts and seeing the actual spot where a Tasmanian Tiger fossil was found. We were amazed at how many animal fossils they have found here and can only imagine how many are still yet to be unearthed.

The highlight of this tour was finding our own tiny fossils in the dig pit. We all sat down happily poking about in red dirt uncovering tiny ribs, teeth and leg bones from ancient marsupials and mammals. You couldn’t pull us away from the pit, it was so much fun discovering these tiny fossils and to know that you are the first person to set eyes on them is pretty special. The fossils you find are all labeled and sent off for testing and if you by chance discover a new species, it will be displayed in the museum with your name under it – how special is that! (we all have our fingers crossed we found something special – ‘Blondus Nomadius’ has a nice ring to it right?!).

Not just a cave

During our stay we also enjoyed a few treats at the onsite cafe and visitor centre. It has a fantastic display of information about the local geology, bats and community history. The kids spent a lot of time getting up close and personal with the live display of lizards, scorpions, frogs and other crawly creatures.

We chose to take advantage of the bush camping available and stayed onsite for a few days in our caravan. After a day of caving adventures there was nothing better than enjoying the serenity of the bush, cooking dinner over the campfire, gazing at the stars and of course, roasting marshmallows. Does it get any better?!

The Capricorn Caves are open everyday 8am – 6pm.

There is loads more to see and do in Rockhampton. Discover 7 awesome family activities in Rockhampton as told by The Blonde Nomads on their holiday.

Follow the blondies on instagram and Facebook @theblondenomads or visit www.theblondenomads.com.au for more tales of their time on the Capricorn Coast.