Wonders of Nature Australia III- Jenolan Caves

Sometimes it's good to see the advertised tourist attractions to remember that the world is full of awesome and beautiful places, and also to remember that we are actually tourists here in Australia. We are not going to stay here so it's better to enjoy the sights live now, later on we can only see them in books and internet. Visiting a cave system has been on my list for quite some time and now I finally got the opportunity to do so. The landscape on the way was alarmingly familiar with all the coniferous trees but luckily the destination was a bit more exotic.

The Jenolan Caves was selected as our destination because of its proximity to Katoomba, so it's easy to catch the bus there and back. Because of the local "no worries" attitude the schedule was a bit flexible but as I said, no worries, it was a lovely trip. On the way we even stopped to feed a kangaroo, who seemed to be an opportunistic little creature just waiting for the bus to appear so he could start looking adorable and get the treats. He didn't seem to be at all wary of the people but I was a bit worried when I saw his claws but he seemed such a nice kangaroo and we got on very well indeed. 

Kangaroo and the writer

After the kangaroo had his lunch we continued to the caves. We had booked our tour the day before in Katoomba, having selected the Orient Cave. Jenolan Caves has many interesting cave tours, some of them are more strenuous than the others, forcing people to climb staircase after staircase. The Orient Cave was relatively easy one and a half hour's tour. 

They call this the bacon shop

Europeans first heard about Jenolan Caves in the 1830's when one of Whalan brothers, either James or Charles depending on the story, went to the area in search of a ex-convict and still disgustingly active thief James McKeown. It's not known who was the one to first discover the caves but some rumors have it that McKeown used the caves as a hideout, trying to avoid the law. 

Discovery of the caves inspired some adventurous men who then kept discovering more of the interconnected caves during the following decades. The caves first became a tourist attraction as early as 1880's and why not, according to the scientists it's the oldest open cave system in the world. The caves were also known to the aboriginal people of that area, but apparently they did not venture deep into the caves. However, they believed the water in the area to have healing properties so they sometimes took their sick people there to be bathed. They called the area "Binoomea", a dark place. 

Our tour guide told us the icicle-like formation hanging from the roof is called a stalactite and the formation rising from the floor is a stalagmite. If those two ever meet, say in the scope of thousands of years, they form what we call a column. But they "grow" extremely slowly, around a centimeter in a hundred years. We also learned that the explorers of the caves, in addition to giving the formations names inspired by the Bible and Greek and Roman mythology, also gave them hilarious names like "the bacon shop" or "the curiosity shop". Well, maybe it's understandable that spending long periods of time in the dark caves might cause one to seek any form of amusement available. OK, that's all I waned to tell you about the caves. For more information on the actual chemical formation process of those stalactites and stalagmites, please consult Google.