Jenolan Caves and Three Sisters - 23.03.08

What a fantastic day. Scott took me to the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains. They are truly spectacular, and you could probably spend the best part of a week down there, just to see them all. We did two caves, one of which Scott had not previously seen (though it was his first choice each time) - so we were lucky.

We started off in The Imperial Cave and then went on to the Temple of Baal.... (We were REALLY hoping that the sacrifice of small children would be on the agenda, since we had these little brats that thought the universe revolved around them, and they were soooooo smart and HAD to have their say about everything. It was another fantastic contraceptive experience. Had they been asking actual questions, it wouldn't have bothered me - indeed they started off that way, but the guide was too nice and his encouragement was a bad thing, as it turned out. It soon deteriorated into a show off session for them, with Mum and Nan being simpering indulgers. Unfortunately we couldn't get far enough away from them most of the time to avoid it - but we did where we could.

The caves are fascinating. Full of 'life'. I really want to go back there someday and see some more.

I've included a few photos here. Unfortunately I didn't get as many shots inside The Temple of Baal as my battery ran out and I hadn't charged it up enough and the spare was dead too. Very silly.

On the way back we stopped off at the Three Sisters - I wanted to make sure I got some photos, so I bought a disposable camera from the souvenir shop - if I at least get 2 or 3 good shots, I will be happy. The giant staircase was interesting - it's really old and has had to be replaced in parts, and honestly the rest probably should - the stone steps are so worn and uneven - but it's a tough call, to destroy history like that. The dreamtime legend goes like this:

The Legend The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle. As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come.

It was a great day - long and tiring, but so worth it. As I say - definitely want to go back there. There were some places to stay that were pretty cheap, so it might be best to stay a couple of days in the mountains, so there's less time to travel. There's 11 caves and more tours than that - of other stuff - so you could certainly spend a few days seeing more. I'm not sure if the caves would all start to blend if you did too much though - quite possibly - though the evening ghost tour would probably be quite something.