Going Underground

Ian and I took a trip to Jenolan Caves today. We'd been here before in 2000 and on that occasion we visited the Chifley and Orient caves. With no less than 11 caves, we were easily able to select ones we had not seen before. This time we opted for the Lucas cave and the Imperial & Diamond caves. Lucas cave was given a 'harder' rating as it included 1000 steps. Having walked 16 km through Samaria Gorge (Crete) at 39 degrees Celcius on a previous holiday, this was not too daunting!

The Lucas cave tour proved to be popular. All 60 of us funnelled into the narrow corridors, staring in awe at the stalactite, stalagmite, shawl and column formations. Some of the formations looked orangy/peachy and this, we were told, was as a result of iron particles in the ground. We spotted the broken column - broken over the years as a result of ground movements. This cave contains the highest and largest chambers in Jenolan. We saw the cathedral chamber and the acoustics here were magnified. Wedding ceremonies have taken place here. Choirs and bands have also booked this venue in the past. How they manage to lug all that heavy equipment through the narrow passageways and climb the numerous steps is mind-boggling.

'Nellies Grotto', Imperial Cave.

Climbing through the caves.

We were told by the guide how early travellers in the Victorian era had visited these caves. In those days the caves did not have electricity and tourists had to carry candles in their mouths. They often had to slide down steep pathways dotted with boulders. Sometimes beards would catch on fire! That must have smelt bad; a full-on Victorian beard a-flame. But what was worse was that by patting out the flame, the burn victim would then become a fall victim as he let go of his guide rope and slid to the hard floor below, lit only by a singed beard. These early tourists could not use cameras to record what they saw, nor could they buy a nik nak from the gift shop. Instead, they were encouraged to throw rocks at the ceiling causing the stalactites to become lose and fall to the ground so they could keep them as a souvenirs. They were even encouraged to sign their name on the ceiling in one place, which we could clearly see. This kind of souvenir hunting came to an end many years ago with laws in place to protect the caves.

The guide at the Imperial & Diamond caves told us about a guy called Ridley who had accidentally fallen down a drop of around 20 feet, on hard rock and discovered this chamber. He fortunately survived the fall and the path was consequently named 'Ridley's shortcut'. The Imperial chamber has a wide range of formations. Unlike the Lucas cave, there were more sparkly-looking stalactites and this effect, we were told, was as a result of evaporation.

The Imperial and Diamond caves were definitely less strenuous to walk through than the Lucas cave. However, it seemed more slippery. It had been raining all day and some of the rain water had been trickling through to the caves. Ian and I managed to slip on the pathways. Ian even managed to bang his head on one of the low ceilings as he'd been wearing a baseball cap inside (and consequently couldn't entirely see where he was going!). It was quite a loud thud but apart from seeing a few stars, he was ok.

'Shawls', as they are known, lining the underside of a rock inside Imperial Cave.

The Imperial cave included such gems as the crystal city, Nellies Grotto, the underground blue river and the helictite formations (curly noodle shaped bits that clung onto stalactites). Apparently, lots of theories have been proposed as to why helictites exist but no one knows for sure why they do. The Diamond cave is where we saw white crystal formations. The 'Gem of the West' and the queen's jewels looked stunning.

The underground river, beneath Imperial Cave, with its perfectly clean, crystal-clear water.

We walked uphill back to the carpark and stopped off at Carlotta's arch to take a few photos. Through the archway we could see the blue river and the numerous trees at ground level. The archway framed the scenery like a portrait picture. All that walking was tiring stuff but even this last uphill stint was worthwhile.