Spelunking at the Jenolan Caves

The wonderful Villanueva family invited me to come and celebrate their son Xavier's 15th birthday! Realize that we are in the middle of our summer here and the school is out from mid-December through to the end of January. Mom and dad (Ferdinand and Rowena) took the day off and older son, Lester, was off "uni." So the whole family invited me to journey with them the 2.5 hour drive to Jenolan Caves. I can't remember when I've laughed so much. (One of the things I love about Ferdinand and Rowena and their family is that they think I am funny; even my corny jokes elicits a laugh. And I love making people laugh! Below is a shot of the explorers during one of our sojourns. The birthday boy is on the far left.

I'm hoping that one of the boys receives a call to enter the religious life or become a priest. Both of them are very active in the Church, serving at Mass and participating in our young adults (Lester is 20) and youth groups. Both Ferdie and Rowena are always talking about our Faith. It's lovely to meet such a wholesome and normal Catholic family. But on to Jenolan Caves...

From the official website: "Regarded as Australia's most outstanding cave system, Jenolan Caves is the oldest cave system in the world, and forms part of the Greater Blue Mountain World Heritage Area. The main attraction is the vast network of caves with their amazing limestone formations and pure underground rivers." You need to book a tour to visit, which we did.

Actually, there are many tours and we took two. One was 90 minutes long (Lucas Cave, named after the man who helped preserve the cave system as a natural heritage) and another was 60 minutes long (called Imperial Cave, referring to the reign of Queen Victoria). Below are shots that really don't do justice to the massive size of the caves. According to one of our guides, it takes around 100 years to create a centimeter of crystals that form from water seeping through the limestone, collecting minerals and then dropping down from the ceiling of the caves. Eventually, the stalactites (the long spears of crystals that form from the ceiling down) sometimes meet the stalcmites (those that form up from the floor) and become columns.

The 2nd image below was called "The Three Sisters" after a famous huge rock formation in the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately, they were legally required to stop calling it that. It is now called "The Three Brothers!" The 8th image below is a formation called "the Statue of Liberty." You could've probably spotted it without my telling you. And the last couple of shots are an image called "the Pope." My camera is good, so I can capture even the far away stuff well.

Sometimes water forms along a line. Over a long period of time, the line continues and it makes these curtains of crystal sediment that are extreme delicate. Truly a wonder to behold!

At the bottom of all the caves is water. Water is what formed the structures. The water becomes a river, at the bottom of cave. The river is very clear (having been filtered through the rocks) and full of minerals. Light passing through the minerals make give it an aqua color though the water is clear, cold and safe to drink. The minerals in the liquid also make the water look less deep than it really is!

Outside between cave tours, we took a hike up a mountain side to see the historic place where we would eat: Chisolm's restaurant which is a turn of the century hotel. We also discovered a crimson rosella and a blue wren. The blue wren is about 3 inches tall--so cute!