BORENORE CAVES, NSW – 20-21 August 2022
Jim floated the idea of a trip to Borenore Caves (one of the few caving areas in NSW that are open lol), there aren’t that many caves there, certainly not enough for a 2 day weekend, so, Kathy offered to put on a Murder Mystery night and seeing we were staying in some accommodation in Orange, it seemed like the perfect combination.
Marcia and I took a leisurely drive up to Orange – stopping off at one of her favourite metal junk yards to see what treasures they might have. Sadly, we arrived there after 3pm, and they were closed, next time we’ll go earlier. We then headed over to our accommodation, missed the correct turn and ended up circumnavigating Mount Canobolas, the road was a bit iffy in some places, a fun adventure though. But we got there, that was the main thing.
The entrance to the log cabbin, lovely climbing rose. The house sits on acreage so is very private.
Log cabin from the back yard, it sleeps 13 people easily, however a few of the beds are double beds, so possibly wouldn’t suit everyone. It had a lovely fireplace inside so we set to work lighting the fire around 5pm so that the house would be cozy when people started arriving.
By 11pm Kathy, John & Bella G, Rod S, Tanya with Connor & Ellie, Jim and Cheryl, and then Cathi and Rod O’B had arrived. The wine was flowing and people had snacks or dinner, then it was time for bed as we’d possibly have an early start on Saturday.
We were pretty lazy getting up and headed off to Borenore Caves. I’d tried to get a permit for us to visit Cathedral and Tunnel caves, but the bats were hibernating and so we were restricted to The Arch and Veranda cave and some sneaky little holes along the way that we’d poke our heads down.
We set off on the 2k walk to Verandah Cave on a very squishy track, they’ve had loads of rain since my trip here back in May.
Bear with me if I’ve got the tag numbers mixed up, this is BN29. We sent Jim, Cheryl and the kids up the slot at the back to see if there was anything more to the cave than meets the eye – nope!
A hole under a rock, would be hard pressed to find a “dark zone”, in BN55. The beauty of having two adventurous kids on the trip is that they’ll go anywhere!
BN66 – “just pop in here Connor and check it out”.
“Cathi, just hold onto my feet and pull me out if I can’t go any further!” I think that was a big NO from Cathi.
Until Elli came in and agreed to hold onto his feet, with John watching over her, prepared to pull Connor out once he had had enough of the squeezy little hole that no-one else would fit down!
We eventually arrived at Tunnel cave (which we couldn’t go into) and headed up over the hill to Verandah, stopping at a few holes in the ground that we suspected dropped into Tunnel.
Rim pools at the back of Verandah Cave, I hadn’t noticed these the last time I was in there. gives you an idea of how active this cave would have been.
Verandah Cave – about 30cm more water in it than the last time I visited in May, we could walk across easily barely getting our feet/shoes wet, now the water would have been half-way up your calves. An impressive overhang though.
When talking to the ranger about permits, he mentioned that he’d be doing some graffiti removal from The Arch, so I took photos of the graffiti at Verandah. I’ve offered the services of MSS club members to remove the graffiti when we eventually get our permit for Tunnel & Cathedral.
More graffiti – why do people do this, luckily it seems that only mud and charcoal were used so should be pretty easy to remove with water and a soft brush.
On the way back to the track, we found this hole and poked our heads inside, another small cave, so nice to have the time to do a bit of exploration.
By the time we got back to the cars, Marcia and I had had enough of walking and it was beginning to sprinkle so we decided to head back to the cottage and light the fire. Everyone arrived back around 4 and after relaxing for a while went off to get dressed in their costumes for the Murder Mystery night – set in the 1930s or 1920s.
Kathy was “the boss” and led us through the game which was great fun, we wouldn’t know “who did it” until right at the end, we all stayed in character right to the end, there was a lot of ad-libbing. Connor and Ellie were great, fitted right into their characters and played along with the adults, absolutely lovely kids, their mother Tanya and uncle Rod should be very proud. It’s been such a pleasure for me to see them grow up over the past 5 years.
The cast, all looking appropriately subdued in the group photo. The costumes were fabulous, I was the only one not dressed to the nines! Loved Rod’s spats on his shoes and Cathi’s costume – what can I say, well done team.
Sunday we all met up for breakfast in Orange – how nice a town is that, loved all the Federation style houses. Then, we all went our different ways, wine tasting, or antique hunting.
Great weekend thanks Jim and Kathy, I’m pretty sure everyone wants to do it again!
The Murder Mystery looks like so much fun.! I am just starting my binge watching for the evening,😂😂😂.
So sick of political ads that I have sworn off TV til the elections are over !!!!
Much more fun to amuse myself reading about your adventures!
So good to hear that someone actually reads it (lol)!
Always lovely to hear from you Kathy.