Nov 4 - Cave Dwelling

   Captain Cupcake and I arose to a very nice breakfast spread.  I had a small glass of apple juice, a cup of English Breakfast tea with one sugar and a spot of milk, a bowl of 40g Uncle Toby's Toasted Muesli with a few dollops of fresh Gippsland fruit yoghurt, three stewed plums, a warm croissant with butter, two small pieces of watermelon and three strawberries and one slice of toast with butter and Vegemite.  What can I say, country air seems to give me an appetite.
  After breakfast we bid out hosts farewell and headed off to Buchan.  It was a beautiful sunny day today, perfect weather to take in the scenery.  As we drove out of Bairnsdale we passed a fox sunning himself by the side of the road.  He was sitting tall, happy as Larry and completely unfazed by the vehicles whizzing past him.
  When we got to Buchan, before heading down to the caves we paused to stop at the general store for a drink.  I had a 250ml Apple Fruit Box.  We stopped on a park bench and watched a cat stroll about his domain, causing Captain Cupcake to remark sarcastically, "Foxes, cows, sheep, cats.. gotta love the Australian native fauna".
  We proceeded on to the caves and bought our tickets for the next tour of Royal Cave then walked around to the entrance.  As we did, we caught sight of our first actual Australian native fauna.  A kookaburra with a small snake in its beak.  It was up high on a small branch outside a hole in the trunk of the tree.  The snake was bashed about a bit, as kookaburras do, and then it was poked inside the hole and the kookaburra took off.  If you listened, you could hear the squawks of the hungry kookaburra chicks.
  We got to the cave entry in ample time.  So much time in fact that the earlier tour had not yet gone in, so we heard the safety spiel twice before we finally got to enter.  The tour was great apart from a few very small children shrieking and wailing and a few adults making ridiculously poor jokes and behaving in a less than exemplary manner.  The cave actually looked bigger than I remembered in my childhood which was surprising.  We had to go through some pretty tight gaps so I was glad not to be doing it 18 kilograms ago!  I also had a new found respect for my parents corralling four of us through that very same cave as small children.
  We got to see straws, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, columns, shawls and ribbons, flowstone, cauliflower formations, pools of water and shimmering calcite crystals.

Font of the Gods, Royal Cave, Buchan

  At the end of the tour, the tour guide directed us to go left down to the carpark at the base of the Royal Cave entry, but as Captain Cupcake and I had listened to the previous guide, we knew that the quickest way back for us was to go right as we'd parked elsewhere.  Thank goodness we knew that, as it allowed us our second Australian native fauna experience.  We were charging down the hillside, bitching agreeably about some of the people we'd shared the tour with, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a resting Eastern Grey Kangaroo.

Eastern Grey Kangaroo in the shade of a Bottlebrush

  We returned to the car and headed back towards Bairnsdale.  We paused once on the trip back when I pulled the car over to take this photo for Mr Smart.  We were on the Bruthen-Buchan Road, just passed Boggy Creek and it made me think of him and his being mired in study of late.  Very soon it will be over for another semester and then he will indeed be able to have a well deserved break.

  We stopped for lunch in Bairnsdale.  I remembered that yesterday, the local hamburger joint (George's) had smelled particularly enticing, so we wandered in there.  It was there, that Captain Cupcake ran into someone she knew from Melbourne!  It really can be such a small world sometimes.  Anyway, I had one and a half potato cakes and a hamburger with the lot plus pineapple (though I question how you can add anything to a burger with 'the lot').  It was the best burger I'd had in ages.  Tasty, well-cooked and sensibly assembled so it didn't fall apart as you ate.  Oh, and a 600ml Kirk's Portello.  I didn't even know they made Portello any more!

  With full and happy tums we set off for Melbourne.  We pretty much drove straight home except for a couple of pit stops.  We had tried to grab some dinner but ended up plumping for Kebab Joint once we reached home.  We got home just in time to buy our dinner and watch the Big Brother eviction.  I am not a fan, don't normally watch it, but was happy to indulge Captain Cupcake in her desire to view it and tweet along.  I had a lamb and salad box accompanied by some eggplant and yoghurt dip and a few multigrain rice crackers.

  After dinner Captain Cupcake headed home and I finished unpacking the car, then did a little more proof reading for Mr Smartm then set about processing my photos and writing the blog.  It has been rather a disastrous weekend for the diet and I haven't really done my back exercises properly either so it will have to be back on the wagon again for me tomorrow.  It's getting harder and harder as we head into the silly season and it's not helped at all by the fact that I'm getting bored with my 'good' foods.  I need to try some new lunch and dinner ideas but I'm not sure when I'll get the time to look into them.
  I am kind of freaking out about the work week ahead.  I only have three days of work this week and I've been foolish enough to volunteer one of them to help train a colleague.  Not to mention that with my offsider not in tomorrow I have to start early and keep an eye on what comes across her desk.  I'm sure I'll muddle through but it's stressing me out thinking about it now.  I shall have to get it off my mind in order to sleep I think.
  There are also a few positives this week.  Melbourne Cup Day means an extra day off to work on my own things which is always nice and there is always the potential to win the office sweep.  There is a celebratory dinner on Thursday evening and a very special birthday present to wrap!  Let's hope I make it through all those with sanity still intact.  Many would say my sanity is already tenuous at best but to them I say 'Oh shush you'.
  Pleasant dreams and a happy tomorrow to you all.
  Jess