Umpherston Sinkhole

UniSA Cave Explorer Camp

Student Explore Australia

This spring, UniSA Division of Business students decided to go on the Cave Explorer Camp! We brought together about 30 staff and students on what was an amazing 3 days of travel and getting to know each other.

We went Aussie-style, bush camping in tents with a campfire at night! The first night was very cold, but warmed up reasonably by our second night. It’s so important to get a good quality sleeping bag and bring warm clothes when camping, be prepared! Even though we pitched our tents in gorgeous bush land under Australian gumtrees, we still had the luxury of hot showers and toilets – so no one had to dig a hole to go toilet… now that’s a bonus!

Our first day was filled with wine! After we setup camp, we jumped straight back onto the bus for a delightful wine tasting. Coonawarra wine district offers some of the best wines South Australia has, and although not as well-known as the Barossa Valley, it can certainly compete on wine quality! We went to two stunning wineries, PERFECT for Instagram photos… @StudentsExploreAustralia !!

Rymill Coonawarra Winery

Day 1 night time… wine in hand telling stories around the campfire after a big meal from our chef… can life get any better?

Our first ‘teaser’ cave was a self-guided cave exploration. We didn’t need any helmets or cave exploring gear, just walked in and enjoyed the scenery! After our big lunch back at our campsite, we headed for Mt Gambier – the second largest city in South Australia.

Arriving at Mount Gambier, we saw the amazing views from Centenary Tower, we visited the famous Blue Lake and also Umpherston Sinkhole… an absolutely beautiful garden that was blossoming with spring flowers. I highly recommend you check out all the photos in our gallery to see the sinkhole!

Next up, the best tour guide ever, Danielle, took us to the World Heritage Fossil Cave which had bones over  500,000 years old. They had even some ‘megafauna’ bones… not dinosaurs, but almost as old! Then we went next to the bat cave, where we saw bats flying out as night time came over us. We didn’t get too close, just watched from a comfortable distance. We explored the next open cave full of sleeping bats and took some more great photos before coming back to camp for a nice hot meal from our chef!

Naracoorte Caves Camp 4

It was time again for some social drinks and desert – marshmallows toasted on the campfire dipped in chocolate sauce with sweet biscuit crumbs… yum!

The next morning we had another chef-made breakfast, quickly packed our tents, and played a few outdoor games together. After some volleyball, badminton and soccer we had a bite to eat and got back on the bus, with a stopover at Hahndorf town for a bit of exploring on the way back to Adelaide!

The activities, camping and food were all great, but the best part was meeting and getting to know everyone on the trip. Most of us were able to meet up a few days later to enjoy a festival in Adelaide. So when you come camping with us at SEA, make sure to get everyone’s Facebook so you can catch up after the camp!

Naracoorte Caves Camp 11