The Cathedral Cave Tour

The tour begins in a magnificent cave entrance where fig tree roots cling to the limestone walls, shy rock wallabies hide in crevices and the cool cave air emerges from the darkness below.

The guide leads through smaller caves decorated with ancient stalactites and flowstones, past rare ferns into large chambers revealing images on the rock scapes that the early explorers used as navigation markers. After rainfall thousands of little bats cluster on the cave ceilings to leave at dusk to feed on insects.

The natural acoustics of the Cathedral Cave make it a popular venue for weddings and Underground Opera. As visitors listen in awe to the music, the lights are dimmed and cave darkness takes on a new meaning. The guide lights a candle and recounts tales of the first cave explorer John Olsen. A fun option to end the tour is negotiating the narrow Zig Zag passage and emerge into daylight on the swinging bridge in the dry rain forest.

Geotour: 'A journey of Discovery'

Capricorn Caves is a significant geo-site on the Dig The Tropic trail running from outback Bouilia to Capricorn Coast - a journey of 1200 kms. Visitors can experience a specialised cave geo tour revealing an ancient geological landscape where they will discover marine fossils encrusted on the cave walls, evidence of the coral reef that existed 390 million years ago.

At Queensland Museum's palaeontology dig site visitors can sift through the tailings for evidence of mega fauna thousands of years old. This significant deposit provides a snapshot of 100,000 years of prehistory including two major periods of aridity and the disappearance of the mega fauna.

Bats, rock wallabies and other endangered animals that have survived climatic change may be seen along with the rare fern tectaria devexa struggling to survive extinction.

A walk through the dry rainforest reveals how the flora has adapted to the climatic change and survived in the dry weather regime.

A climb to the surface ridge of the karst rewards the visitor with panoramic views of the nearby volcanic plugs and floodplains.