Sydney Seconds - the Caves

New Year's Eve had come round (very quickly, I might add), and it was our last full day in Sydney.

We were met at 7am in the morning by our driver, John, who originated from Tavistock & although he'd been living in Australia for the last 20+ years, he didn't appear to have lost much of his accent. The trip was mainly focussed on the caves, however it took us via the Blue Mountains for the first part - something I attempted to see with Louisa last time. As I've made my way around Australia, I have been much more aware of how aptly they name things. There will often be a Latin name and an Australian name. The Australian name will always just be telling it as it is. Let me give you an example. In the Great Barrier Reef are many types of stunning coral. One of the types I saw is called Acropora Cervicornis, and basically looks like lots of deer antlers. The Australian name? Staghorn coral. Exactly what it looks like.

The Blue Mountains are kind of similar. They are a set of mountains that are covered with various Eucalyptus trees. These give off a vapour which looks blue in certain light. That light tends to be when it's a sunny clear day from what I can tell. When Louisa & I went last time, it was not one of those days and was quite overcast. So we didn't see the blue-ness of the mountains. We also didn't see the rock formation called the 3 sisters.

So I was hopeful that this trip would allow us to be more successful in our viewing of the mountains & the rocks. However, whilst waiting for the bus we had to run in and get our emergency poncho's because it was raining. We then knew that we may be unsuccessful but we weren't phased - the main point of our trip was to see the Jenolan caves and hopefully any weather conditions would be ok there!

As expected, we arrived to overcast skies at the Blue Mountains scenic world. We took the scenic train down to the rain forest. The visibility was so poor that you could hardly call it scenic, and it was really raining so I was very glad this wasn't the main point of our trip. We attempted to get the skyride back up the mountains which should've given us views of the 3 sisters, but again, the visibility was awful. So much so that we actually couldn't see the skyrail car until it was metres in front of us. Before that it was just the beginning of a cable that appeared to be going up into the sky into nowhere.

Anyhow, the weather wasn't going to affect our mood for our last day, and we had the caves to look forward to which would be sheltered from the elements. These caves were recommended to us by Teena's brother and I was so glad we went. First of all, you have to drive through a cave to get to the caves, which was exciting in itself. They are apparently the oldest discovered caves (not necessarily the first discovered, but the oldest in age from all those that have been discovered). I can quite believe it. I've been to caves in the UK before, but these were massive.

There was such a big network and several tours we could've done. The rock formations inside were amazing, lots of different stories behind everything. Apparently a woman discovered the caves unofficially before they were officially discovered, but because she was a woman and shouldn't have been down caves at that time, they didn't give her any recognition!

In the cave we went in there was a small stream at the bottom. Our tour guide told us that if we dropped anything in there he wouldn't be going in after it for us as it was only 12 degrees down there... 12 degrees? If the water was that warm in England I'd be swimming in it!

By the time we came out it had started to rain but the skies were clearing up. I had to sleep on the mini bus to stop myself from being ill, but on the way back we stopped at a view point and everything had cleared up so much that you wouldn't have known it was the same day that we could see nothing in the morning. We even clearly saw the 3 sisters! I didn't see the full blue-ness of the mountains (I was probably asleep at that point), but I'd got glimpses and it's always good to have a reason to return.

As it was New Year, the roads were being closed in Central Sydney - one small downside to having our hotel so smack bang in the middle of the city. It meant that we couldn't get dropped off right outside our hotel, but we were close enough.

Next stop, New Year's Eve in Sydney...