A few weeks ago we set aside a day to embark on a family outing to the Jenolan Caves. We spent our morning driving through the beautiful Blue Mountains. At least we assume it was beautiful scenery. We could only see about 15 metres ahead and then lots of fog. We had inadvertently picked a very overcast day for our trip and spent a large amount of time driving in a cloud.
The children were delighted to spot this wallaby (and some of his/her friends) as we were driving. Those flowers (maybe weeds?) looked very pretty and lined the roads in some areas.
The entrance to our destination - the Jenolan Caves.
Jenolan Caves House. Despite feeling a little cheated that we couldn't see much during our drive to the Jenolan Caves, we were happy to discover that the rain had kept the crowds away. I also think it added a romantic cosy feeling to the lovely Caves House. It would be a great spot for a wedding. In fact, there was a couple on our cave tour who were planning their wedding for a few months time. However they were opting to get married inside the caves.
We chose the Lucas cave tour. There were quite a lot of steps and the tour lasted for one and a half hours, but the kids coped just fine and in fact really enjoyed themselves. I was a little worried that we may get half way into the tour and have Erica decide that she needs to use the bathroom (this happens a lot when we are grocery shopping). Fortunately that situation didn't arise. Above is Ethan on one of the paths cut into a cave.
Erica being careful not to bump her head.
Erica touching the (artificially) glowing crystals. Just about every time Erica turned a corner she called out "look there's a stalactite!" She was endlessly fascinated.
Ethan posing on the top of some steps. We climbed about 1000 steps over the course of the day.
Bishop Jeffrey in front of Bishop Rock.
The Broken Column.
Various photos we took inside the caves........
Quirky Jenolan Caves fact - The Jenolan Caves is (possibly) the first (and quite likely only) tourist attraction in the world to offer tours in Klingon. During the 1990s two writers from Star Trek visited the caves. Consequently a starship named the USS Jenolan appeared in an episode of Star Trek. More recently two Klingon scholars (who knew there was such a thing!?) visited the caves, translated the English versions of a couple of the tours and recorded new audio guides.
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