Thursday, November 29

We left bright and early at 8:30 in Shaun's Subaru and drove to Jenolan Caves.  This was the better option than taking a train to Katoomba, then a $53 coach ride to the caves (that didn't include entrance fees), as it would alow us a bit more flexibility in the caves we went to see.

The Jenolan Caves are one of the oldest limestone karst cave systems in the world, estimated to be something like 450 million years old.  That's alot of stalactites and stalagmites!  There are estimated to be 300 caves in this system, and about 11 of them are developed with stairs, steps, ladders, handrails and electrical lights.  Actually, this place had one of the first generators for electricity in all of Australia, and just as many people came here in the 1800s to see this newfangled 'electricity' as they did for the caves themselves.

When I was here 7 years ago, I got on a tour coach in Katoomba, and I remember the Jenolan Caves Road as being terrifying in a big coach.  It's a 'two lane' road... but really, it's only 1 1/2 lanes.  On the blind corners, they put a white line in the middle of the road to suggest that there could be two lanes if you pull over far enough to almost go over the edge.  On the left side of the road is a drop off of about 300 meters.  On the right side is a solid rock face.  Glad I wasn't driving.  Luckily, we had absolutely no oncoming traffic on the drive in.  It's actually only the last 8km that are hair raising!

The 'Bat End' of the Orient cave.  This shawl used to hang down almost all the way to the floor, but was unfortunately damaged when putting in a new entrance.  The diggers were supposed to use a pick and shovel for the last meter or so, but decided to use dynamite instead.  The rate of grown on these shawls is 1cm per 100 years.