Jenolan Caves

May 9th

In front of the Three Sisters

Off to go spelunking in the Jenolan Caves, 175 kilometres west of Sydney. The Jenolan Caves are the oldest discovered open caves in the world. Some areas of the caves are over 400 million years old!

Valley in the Blue Mountains

The Jenolan Caves take about 3 hours to get to and are situated in the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are actually sand stone plateaus and beautiful ones at that. They are named such for the bluish haze that often covers the valleys.

Three sisters rock formation

Our first stop was an overlook over the world famous Three Sisters. The Three Sisters are a rock formation cut out of soft sandstone. An aboriginal legend tells a tale of three sisters, Meehni, Womlah, and Gunnedoo, who were in love with three men from a rival tribe. A battle ensued over this, and the sisters' father turned them into stone to protect them. He died in battle and never got to turn them back, or at least that's my interpretation of the story.

Can't build a developed country without logging...but these ones get replanted at least

A dangerously steep hour of winding single-lane roads later, and we were at the Jenolan Caves. The entrance required our bus to squeeze through two rock outcroppings. Once through, we parked and waited to start our tour.

The humongous cave our bus drove through

The caves run about 40 kilometres deep, and new caves are still being discovered to this very day. There are about 10 caves for tourists to explore. We went into one called Chifley.

Duck, Zach, duck!

Chifley's entrance was very small, as were many other parts of it. I had to duck down several times so as not to bang my head. It was also significantly cooler in the cave to the point where a jacket was a good idea.

Purty limestone

I can't imagine exploring these caves like they did back in the day using only flashlights. It's a sight to behold all these limestone formations and all the other 300-400 million year old formations. Oh, the artist that is nature.

This formation looks like a dragon..and to think this was all done naturally!

Back in the sunlight, we ate lunch then headed towards Govett's Leap, where the highest elevated waterfall is in the Blue Mountains. Not bad of a lookout if I do say so myself.

Waterfall at Govett's Leap

Lookout to Grose Valley
We also ran into a bunch of kangaroos in the wild, including a baby joey in a mother's pouch. I've probably seen over twenty kangaroos in the wild (never mind the zoo) since I've gotten here. Yet, they are still majestic creatures to see each time.

Now back to the city I go!

Jono