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Tags: Adventure Travel / Caves / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Snakes, Sun and the Summer Solstice

Snakes are a big part of the traveling myth Down Under, and a caving trip through the Capricorn Caves near Rockhampton, Queensland, might be the trip that brings you face to fang with a slithery python. (Don't worry, they're usually the harmless ones.) There are bats, too, and a few other creepy-crawlies to keep the hikes and cave climbs exciting.

What we especially like are the parts of the caves covered on a Wild Caving Adventure tour. You have to squeeze through spots with names like Rebirth and Fat Man's Misery, which sound not so much fun as challenging.

Coming up soon is the Summer Solstice Light Spectacle in the caves, when light from the sun directly overhead hits just the right angle to naturally illuminate the cave. (It's sorta like that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones holds up the Staff of Ra.) The special caving tours run from December through to early January but have a peak on December 22 when the sun beam hangs around the longest. Here's hoping the snakes stay away on solstice day.

Related Stories:
· Fangs for the Memories [news.com.au]
· Capricorn Caves [Official Site]
· World's Best Caves coverage [Jaunted]
· Queensland Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Capricorn Caves]

Tags: Animans / Crime / → All Tags

Koala Better at Self-Defense Than Croc

A group of desperate thieves might have as big an addiction to nature shows as they do to some, ahem, controlled substances. Earlier this week the police in the Queensland town of Rockhampton received a tip that someone nearby had a crocodile in their possession -- and the local zoo just happened to be missing a 4-foot female specimen.

Turns out that the thieves had managed to get the croc over a 8-foot chain link fence. According to the zookeeper, "The original plan was [for the thieves] to steal a koala - that's what they were going to use to swap [for] the drugs. [But] apparently [the koala] scratched the shit out of them.'' A live freshwater crocodile is worth about $425 to those who want them as pets -- no word on how much an evil koala would go for.

[Image via witchie taitai/Flickr]

Related Stories:
·   Cranky koala meaner than stolen croc [SMH]