24 December 2018
Buchan caves and more
Lots of attractions today including way too many cave photos which will generally not have much description. After the cave I went to see a historic railway bridge and then drove along a treacherous dirt track to lonesome bay, where a Pelican evaded my camera every time I got near.
Today I used my actual Sony lense, a 28mm F/2.
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Now its time to go into the first cave, the Royal cave. The path was narrow and you had to duck right down a lot. It was generally longer and more claustrophobic than I expected it to be. This one has a reflective pool.
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This is one of the only times I bothered to upload a HDR thingy, even though I made a few in lightroom. Notice how purple it is compared to the previous photo? It is also a massive file size and makes lightroom slow.
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Super super calcified. Alarmingly, the air in the cave was so moist it made my camera malfunction. Despite having the cover on the hot shoe attachment I got a warning that an unauthorized accessory was mounted to it. I googled this once I got out and its a common issue if moisture gets into the contacts on the hot shoe.
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Here are some of the stairs. Both caves had quite a lot of stairs. The tour groups were small, especially once we went to the second cave.
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The holes down were very deep. There is another cave under here called the federal cave, but you need to be a proper caver to do that one, I think there is water involved.
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It was surprising how your head gets so close to the formations. Some had been snapped off in accidents according to the guide.
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This is a close up of some calcification. Again it looks like coral. But actually, it might be? This used to be ocean, like much of Australia.
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This is inside the second cave now, actually I think the last few shots were, the fairy cave. Here is some of the infrastructure.
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You cannot walk all the way over the top as it is falling down. Trains ran over it until the 1980's when it was damaged in a bushfire.
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This is a HDR of the trestles. I think I should be using HDR where there is bright light, rather than when its dark. I dont know, clearly I have no idea. It kind of works.
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After a drive down a rough dirt track in a Suzuki Kizashi, I arrived at Lonesome bay, and it was very lonesome indeed.
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There was strange algae and a Pelican floating in the distance. As I got closer to the Pelican he would swim off around the corner out of view.
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Here is a shot facing back where I had came from. Different light obviously. Probably better light actually. This place would look great just before sunset rather than at noon.