Jenolan Caves - One of The Oldest Places on Earth!

3 Sisters at Katoomba

It had been a while since our last family outing so it was time. 

Having grown up in Australia, I had engaging memories of the stalagmites and stalactites that adorn the caves at Jenolan. As the kids have mostly lived overseas I thought a little Aussie culture was due. 

In addition, Patrick needed driving hours, (both night and day) to complete his Learner Driving requirements and as it was a 2.5 - 3 hour drive each way, that settled it. (Even though they were a little freaked because they had recently watch the scary movie "The Descent" which involved caves and horrible ugly cave dwellers and lots of blood).

The new freeway makes this quite a quick trip now so we had time to stop in Katoomba, grab a coffee, admire the gorgeous blue winter sky, mountain range and change drivers before heading on to the Caves.

Caves House view from the hike from the Car Park.

The Jenolan Village

One thing you have to know is that confined spaces give me an anxiety attack. I guess you could say that I experience Claustrophobia. When we descended into The Catacombs in Paris, all of the oxygen left my body and my legs went weak and I knew that I had to get out of there.

When the giant steel door slammed behind me in the tunnel to the caves, the same thing happened. However, this time I was moved along with the crowd and had no choice but to continue. As long as the people got out of my way and I could see the end, I was OK.

I distracted myself with the surrounding beauty, taking photos and listening to stories and I am proud to say I made it through perfectly well. The caves are actually airy and quite large. I think the tunnel was the most difficult part.

There are a great many to caves to choose from but we agreed that The Temple of Baal sounded best and I'm really glad we did. It was spectacular!

  

  

  

  

I'm not going to pretend I know anything about Geology but I can tell you what we learnt from our Guide. The caves are made from Limestone. It was one of the first rocks to appear on earth and is composed of skeletons and marine organisms that were solidified by Volcanic ash. You can read more here. Oh and she was super excited about Calcium Carbonate! 

The Caves have been recently dated by Dr Armstrong Osborne from Sydney University as being 340 million years old. For you science buffs, you can read more in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. Or a summarised article can be found in ABC's Science News.

   

We couldn't all decide on a second cave so we opted instead for a walk around the lake and a game of "Spot The Platypus"!

YES the lake is blue. Apparently minerals that have run off from the caves make it this colour and YES we found the Platypus!

View Back to The Grand Arch from The Blue Lake

NOTE: There is nothing worse than seeing photographs of a place that looks great, then you go to this place and find that the photos were completely enhanced and it looks nothing like it did in the photo at all. Therefore I decided that for these images you would get to see them right out of the camera. You will probably see sensor dirt and all sorts so apologies but at least you know that if you go to Jenolan, what you see will be similar, if not better!

Oh and for you camera buffs, this image of the original cave entrance was taken at 51 000 ISO. Love my Canon 1D X.

Nina Beilby is a professional photographer based in Chatswood, Sydney, Australia. You can see more of her work at www.ninabeilby.com.au. 

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Sydney Town, A Duchess and A Duke...

It was a usual glorious, sunny and warm day in Sydney. I was downtown dropping my son at The USA Consulate so decided to wander and take some snaps given I had two hours to kill. Just happened to be the very afternoon The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to arrive so I headed toward the Quay where they were to be received at a reception by our Premier, Barry O Farrell except that in a massive scandal, had decided to resign this very day. Busy news day!

There was plenty of security though in true Aussie style, they all seemed pretty relaxed.

This guy seemed pretty serious but I'm guessing he was MI5 or private security.

Scouring the crowd for weapons

Young and old were lined up along the barriers. Some had been there for 7 hours waiting for a glimpse of The Royals. I spoke to some super excited 5 and 6 year olds who were waving the English flag waiting to see their first "real" princess. There was a giddy 60 year old man who had also recently been in the crowd for Katy Perry scoring an autograph to boot!

Here they come...

 and there they go!

SYDNEY TOWN
On the way back to The Consulate, I took a few more snaps. It's not often I get a chance to get out and about!

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Christmas Lights and Fireworks

Eager to begin new family traditions, we thought we would visit downtown Sydney to view some of the festive seasons attractions. The city was spectacular and did not disappoint.

We opted for the train into the city as Carols In The Domain were on (Australia's largest concert held in The Royal Botanic Gardens) and parking was already at capacity. We started at Saint Mary's Cathedral which was beautifully lit with coloured lights. We walked through the church where the girls lit some candles and payed their respects.

We didn't stay for the full display as we didn't want to miss the fireworks at Darling Harbour but we were there long enough to see the statue procession and receive medallions and rosary bracelets handed out by the acolytes. You can view more about the "Lights of Christmas" here.

I was surprised to see the shops still throbbing with activity at 9pm.

Our plan to watch the fireworks from the bridge was obviously leaked to the rest of the visiting population but we managed to find a decent viewing spot and even a bench for us to all sit on, and me to stand!

This failed but I like it for some reason!

This was all very hot work and were all desperate for water so we stopped for ice cream!! (and water)...

On the way home, we stopped by Town Hall to another spectacular display of lighting. I love our city and so glad that we now this family tradition to look forward to each year.