The Caves, The Caves

The Caves, The Caves Naracoorte, Australia

Naracoorte, Australia

I thought it would be a rather picturesque drive from Tailem Bend to Kingston SE on the way to Naracoorte. Along the coast, the sea lapping along the SA coastline, the flats, the stone cottages. Instead two hours of unrelenting low lying brown shrubs and flooded flats. It just didn’t change. Almost nothing else. Driveways to homes stretched miles off the tarmac. Everyone else fell asleep – Aidan for most of the trip. I wish I could have.

The only memory I have of Kingston SE was as a seven year old visiting Adelaide. Dad bought me a Giant Lobster pencil with the crustacean sitting on top. It was one of those souvenirs that last years. Like my map of Disneyland. For some reason I just kept it. And this time I decided it was Rosa and Aidan’s turn to keep their own Giant Lobster pencil.

Only one problem. When we eventually drove into Kingston (the AFL grand final was about to start) the lobster shop was closed. And looked like it had been for quite some time. I read about the history, and it seems it was a struggle to make a go of it. The through traffic would only be busy during the summer. Still, there were at least four cars parking in front of the deserted shop taking photos of the ever so slightly mouldering lobster.

Aidan, having just woken up, stayed in the car.

Strange town. Massive wide streets, expansive foreshore. There’s so much room here everything stretched out as much as it could. It was also deserted except for the two pubs. The opposite of a European seaside town. Jo wasn’t impressed. We spent the afternoon watching the Dockers blunder and smother either way to a 15 point loss. Terrible team to watch. I left when the Hawks stretched the lead to 31 points.

We diverted to Naracoorte, purely so Aidan could go to the Naracoorte Caves the next day. He loved it, although I still balk at having to pay $60 or a half hour tour. I would have preferred just to run riot myself through the caves.

We shot it home without too many stops. Glad we bought Aidan with us this time. He had a good time, especially considering it was not beach weather, we played board games three of the days and the Barossa is not exactly child paradise. I think they’d just prefer a week at the beach, but it had been a good while since we had a holiday, and this was a decent excuse for one.

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