Jenolan Caves – 12/22/2012
Dec 23rd, 2012 by admin
It’s about 70 kilometers to Jenolan Caves, a huge cave complex west of Katoomba. And it’s in a nearly unpopulated, mountainous area. We head west on the Great Western Highway which runs through Katoomba and on to Bathurst. About 30 km out we take a left on to a narrow two lane road.
The road gets narrower and the twisty bits get tighter. As we get closer to the cave site, the road is officially 2 lane but they are very narrow lanes. There have been signs warning that the road is too tight for cars with trailers and we finally come upon a last sign that says to part the trailer. Good advice. The road is down to one lane and any oncoming traffic will present a problem.
We come down the last grade into the cave area and the road disappears into what appears to be a cave mouth but is actually a natural tunnel that has been widened to allow the road to pass through to the concession and parking areas.
We find the parking area and leave the car, walk back down to get tickets and sign up for a tour of the Lucas cave (one of the many different cave tours they have) and head off to find some lunch.
There are about 10 different cave tours available and they leave about every 30 minutes. Interestingly, they have a rating system for every tour that ranks the tours for the number of stairs that are climbed and how strenuous the cave is. The Lucas tour is right up there on both ratings: nearly 1,000 stairs and at the top of the strenuous ranking. Oh boy, more exercise.
After we finish lunch we have nearly an hour before our tour starts so we head down through the entrance tunnel to a small lake that has a short hike around it. On the way there Barbara sees something in the water but it’s gone before we can make out what it is. The walk goes along the edge of the lake and there are water dragon lizards and ducks out sunning themselves in the bright sunlight.
As we get to the dam that forms the lake, a person ahead of us says that they had just seen a platypus. That is very odd. Platypus are nocturnal. During the day they sleep in burrows that they have dug out of the bank and only come out to feed after it’s dark. We didn’t see it but there’s hope.
A few minutes later, the platypus surfaces in the middle of the small lake. It swims ffor a few seconds, probably getting its breath back and dives again to forage on the lake bottom. This is amazing. We’ve been in Australia for a week now and the first wild animal we see is a platypus which you almost never see in the wild.
We walk along the bank and every few minutes the platypus surfaces, gets recharged and heads back down for more foraging. They root around in the debris on the lake bottom looking for small shrimp, slams and worms which they find with sensors on their duck like bills. We watch him for a number of dive cycles but then have to head off for the start of our tour.
Promptly at 1:00, the tour guide arrives at the assembly point in the Great Arch, gives us few instructions and we start up the stairs for the first the nearly 1,000 steps. Once inside, he gathers us together in the first vaulted chamber and starts the tour description.
Almost all of the caves here are tour-only caves. They do have a couple of smaller caves that you can self guide (with audio devices that give the running commentary.) Our guide has a good, loud voice and he speaks slowly and distinctly. The commentary is typical of this type of tour. When was the cave found. By whom. What were the conditions like.
Pictures with flash are allowed and the semi-darkness of the cave system is continuously being pierce with camera flashes. Of course, since the caverns are so large the flashes don’t do much good. There are fixed lights in many places throughout the cave that illuminate different structures and at stops along the way, the guide points out different things with a hand-held light.
The cave is very beautiful and we’re climbing up and then down and then back up again. There are about 40 people in the tour but things keep moving smoothly. After about an hour and a half, we’re back out where we started in the bright sunlight.
This has been well worth the drive and I’m glad we didn’t miss it. But it’s back to the car and the ride back to Katoomba.
The drive back up the road is more interesting than the ride down. Now there’s traffic coming against us and the narrow road makes passing interesting. Then a bus comes the other direction and we slowing inch our way past each other. At the end of the Jenolan Road we rejoin the Great Western Highway.
On our way back to Katoomba, we pass a sign that we had seen ealier for Perry’s Lookdown and that sounds interesting so we turn off the highway on to a local street and start following the signs. A few kilometers in, a sign warns that the road turns to gravel and that there are about 5 km of unpaved road to the Lookdown.
The area that we driving to overlooks Australia’s Grand Canyon. Govett’s Gorge, the the Blue Mountains, is a heavily forested gorge that looks like a smaller version of the American Grand Canyon (if the Grand Canyon had forests.) There are lookouts all along it’s rim and that’s where we are going.
We turn off the “main” gravel road on to a smaller road and go a few km until we find a parking area. A path leads down out of the parking area to a lookout called The Pulpit. The Pulpit is down about 400 (more) steps to a rock promontory on buttress that literally juts out into the gorge. It’s spectacular location and the views are magnificent.
We take our pictures and just marvel at the beauty of the view. There is a blue haze in the air, hence the name Blue Mountains, that comes from the oils in the eucalyptus trees but the brown and green of the buttresses stand out nonetheless.
We climb back up to the car and head back to the “main” gravel road and get to Perry’s Lookdown. We park again, climb own the stairs again and get to another lookout. This one also has spectacular views but it’s location isn’t as dramatic as The Pulpit. That one is hard to beat if just for its location.
Then back up again (these stairs are wearing us out) and off to see Anvil Rock, the last lookout on the road. We park the car and hike up this time but only a few meters until we see a small tree that has these pine cone looking pods on it. Barbara asks a woman who is also there what the pods are and she tells us that they are the remants of the flowers of the banksia tree. When fresh, the flowers are white but after they are pollinated they form these odd seed pods and the flowers change to what look like spiny pine cones.
We continue on to Anvil Rock a few more meters down the path. It’s another lookout into the Gorge and the lookout is dominated by a huge boulder, Anvil Rock. Just in case you’ve missed it, they’ve mounted a real iron anvil on the top of the boulder that you can climb up and sit on for pictures. Very thoughtful.
More pictures but the clouds have moved in and the light is fading. It’s late in the afternoon of a very long day so it’s back to the car. Up the gravel road and the Great Western Highway. Back to the hotel.
Later out for dinner at a nice small Italian restaurant. Its a byo restaurant (unlicensed for alcohol) but they encourage you to buy a bottle of wine from the bottle shop next door. A decent shiraz, some spaghetti and meatballs. Back to the hotel.
Obi-wan
2 Responses to “Jenolan Caves – 12/22/2012”
I froze there! They did have a musical concert in one of the caves that was touted to have the most nearly perfect acoustics. Awesome.
Yep. They were hawking it but wrong day, wrong time. It’s held in the first chamber on the Lucas Cave tour.
P