Capricorn Caves is one of those places that you pretty much know is going to be a tourist trap, but feel compelled to frequent anyway. We wanted to see some caves and since we didn’t have a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get to the free caves, we ended up paying for the privately owned caves. Of course you have to go on a tour there, you can’t just walk around and check the place out, so that becomes a minus. Continue reading “Falling into and Climbing Out of the Tourist Trap” →

Bowling Green National Park was somewhat of a disappointment. There weren’t really any walks listed except for the one to Alligator Creek falls, which sounded interesting, but it wasn’t a caravan park and that made it appealing. We called from Airlie Beach to make sure that we could get a spot. The phone conversation that followed was just as maddening as the one at Blackdown Tablelands. This time the person who was making the booking couldn’t figure out if the one spot left was accessible to campervans. It said it was, but it wouldn’t let him book it. I was put on hold many times for several minutes as the payphone and the meter that we were parked at ticked away. Continue reading “If This is the Pony Ride, I Want My Money Back” →

We’ve been staying at a lot of caravan parks in Australia which is not really something that we planned on doing. The problem is that to get to most of the actual campgrounds, you either have to have a 4-wheel drive vehicle or you have to hike in with a tent. We are equipped with neither of these things (renting a vehicle like that would have taken up our entire budget for Australia), so usually we either have to camp on the side of the road or in a caravan park. Most of the side-of-the-road campsites are pretty sad – not somewhere you want to spend a good deal of time, but caravan parks have their downside as well. Continue reading “Blackdown Tablelands” →