Its a Hop, Skip and Jump to Kangaroo Island - Retrospective TR (updated 5/1)

OMG! That sinkhole in PR is amazing! Thanks to you and @ACDSNY for sharing pictures of it. Now I have to add it to my bucket list.
...no problemo....it's between Camuy and Hatillo....you are not allowed to touch the water inside the cave, because it might kill the species. They are a kind of shrimp that is "bioluminescent" or maybe "see-through".... :confused3 :rolleyes: The sinkhole was discovered in the 50's. What's really cool is that you take a tram to the bottom on this little winding path (not really even a road!).
 
We had a private tour guide driving us around PR so some how we missed all that and just went to two of the caves nack in 2014.
 


Wow! Amazing. That's a very cool tram ride down. Looks like the caves are made from limestone. I hope to be able to visit.....someday!
...actually you are correct - they ARE made of limestone. And, that tram ride can be terrifying. You traverse along a very windy path as you make your way to the bottom. It almost appears as if you are going to plunge down into a forest pit!
 
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We Paid to Stay in a Gaol!

We didn't stay long at the sinkhole.....we had to check in to our accommodation for the night. We were staying at the Old Mt Gambier Gaol.

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Yup. You read right. G-A-O-L or J-A-I-L!

We didn't speed. We didn't smoke. We weren't picked up by the keystone cops.....but our accommodation for the night was in a cell block.

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Room 21 was our room. It was right next to the showers. Ordinarily, you might have thought it would have been noisy with people coming and going. But it was pretty obvious when we checked in that there only about 4 groups of inmates that night. In fact, I'm pretty sure only DH and I used these showers during our stay.
(There are other shower rooms in all parts of the jail, and the groups were obviously spread out to give them as much privacy as possible.)


The Mt Gambier gaol is one of about 17 gaols in the world that has been converted to hotel lodgings.

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The prison was opened in 1866 and eventually closed in 1995.

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There are parts of the grounds that are positively medieval.

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You could even say.....spooky.

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I think I would have hated to have been here when it was a fully operational jail.

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Today, I would say the accommodation is more a hostel than anything else. This was the old Chapel that had been converted to a shared sitting room for guests. There was a communal kitchen beyond that door. It was functional and basic.

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Our room? It really was a cell. A very comfortable, snug cell room. For one night, it was a fantastic place to crash.

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Whilst the showers were next door, we had our own ensuite toilet and sink. It was clean.
The cost for this room? DH and I paid AU$100 (or about US$75) for this cell.


In any other circumstance, we may not have stayed here. But we can truly say we paid to stay in a prison!

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...In fact, my DH wants to purchase THIS:

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...but I'm not having any of it. :scared:
 
Dinner and a Show

After we settled into the rooms, it was time for dinner. As we were in a country town, we could count on kitchens shutting by 8.30 pm and we didn't want to miss out on dinner.

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Believe it or not. For a country town, the local Thai place was rated as one of the best places to eat on TripAdvisor. This was the beef curry.

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The prawn/shrimp stir fry was tasty. But there was one thing wrong with it.

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We were in country town about 200 miles from the nearest seashore. The prawns/shrimps had been obviously cooked, frozen and then thawed. I might be picky....but I do expect my seafood to have that crystal crunch texture to it. The prawns were just mushy.


At least the vegetarian rolls were decent.

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In the centre of Mt Gambier, there is another sinkhole. The locals call it the Cave Garden. I had read that there was a bit of a light and sound show.

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There was light.

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We got lucky with the "waterfall". It had been a bit wet around Mt Gambier and there was water flowing down to the bottom of the Cave Garden.


And here's the sound part of the show. There was projections on the walls around the Cave Garden. All over and done with in under 10 minutes.

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With nothing else to do around Mt Gambier on a wet and cold night, we headed back to the Gaol.



We did take a few more snaps around the place...

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….before it was time to call it a night.

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princess::upsidedow
 
...In fact, my DH wants to purchase THIS:

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...but I'm not having any of it. :scared:


But ..... but..... but.....

That's the Haunted Mansion!!!!


Just think what it would have looked like AFTER your DH did his magic on that place!!!!!




:rotfl2:
 
...I'm sure I wouldn't have.....knowing me, I would have heard growls and squeaks and whispers that probably aren't even there.

TBH. I probably wouldn't have either. But it had been a long day so I slept like a .......









......dead......weight?????







:scratchin



ps. In case you missed it. Don't forget to check out the food porn above.
 
Day 2, 8 September 2019


Where is the Food Porn????



Good morning Mt Gambier. At 8 am on a Sunday morning, it was super quiet.

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After we packed up the car, we were in need of sustenance. There was not much opened at 8 am, so our choices were limited. This was as busy as it got before 9 am.

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Sorry! No Breakfast Food Porn.

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What can I say? We had been let out of jail and we were hungry!
 

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