It Just Isn't Done That Way - Sydney and the Blue Mountains - TR Complete #284.

[dolphingirl47]

I did not know that you should not take fruit across state borders in Australia. I most certainly did not know this about California either. We may have broken that particular rule.

The traffic looked awful. The hotel looks really nice and the meals looked delicious.

Corinna

 

[PrincessInOz]

Pfft! Cheese is not a dessert... I love a good souffle though!

Occasionally we used to return to Sydney through the blue mountains and those roads are terrible for traffic. The traffic would have to be one of the main reasons I'm glad we don't live in Sydney any more.

Just remember. I ordered the souffle. DS took the cheese.

Traffic was bad on the Friday. We didn't have any issues with it after this day.

What a charming little town! And you digs look lovely! And mmmmm, chocolate soufflé!

Thanks!

We did enjoy our brief time at Glenbrook. I'm glad I booked the Mountain Lodge instead of a room at the Caves House. I think we ended up with more space at the ML.

Great update! Loving it so far. I get that too as the 'planning manager' of the family. A blank face looking at me for the next instruction!

How funny you can't take fruit into another state. As we don't have states in the UK it's hard to get my head around it! Glenbrook looks a cute one horse town. Like the look of Jenolan Caves Hse and Mountain Lodge. How authentic! Cheese and biscuits as we call it here my DW fav desert. Looking forward to hearing what your activity was for this night maybe cave diving? Mountain climbing?

The UK has all those shires and county's.

We call it cheese and biscuits as well. I think it's only 'crackers' in the US.

Our activity is coming up. But it was nothing as adventurous as cave diving or mountain climbing!

Thanks for posting this - my grandparents lived at Blaxland and I spent most of my school holidays in the Blue Mountains (while we lived in Australia)
Already bringing back lovely childhood memories

I did not know that! You can tell me all about it at the next DisMeet.

The traffic looks terrible...almost like the roads up to the mountains this holiday weekend!

That lodge looks nice...dinner looked yummy too!

Is flying the best way to get between major cities? I am used to the train in Europe so wasn't sure with the distances in Australia.

Jill in CO

Jill - it depends on how much time you have and what you want to see. Australia is about the size of the US (if you don't take into account Hawaii or Alaska). There are 8 or 9 major towns/cities spread out across the continent; with the bigger ones all along the East Coast. There is a lot of distance between them (and a lot of repetitive scenery). Melbourne to Sydney is about 1000 km. Driving between the two will take 9 - 10 hours.

I would recommend that you look at flying between the major towns/cities and if you want to drive, you can rent a car at the destinations and venture out a little.

Along for the adventure. I think we took the subway to Katoomba, but that was 15 years ago so the memory may be a little off.

Your memory is correct. The train runs to Katoomba and there is a Hop On/Hop Off bus service at Katoomba that takes you to the major sites. If you didn't want to drive, that would be the way to go see the Blue Mountains.

Geez I barely made page 2. I really need to get my act together!

Well......you have been very busy with real life. Thanks for making it over!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Your trip is the only way I will get there. So I am here. Who cares if it isn't done that way….

Thanks for following along this one! Glad to see you here.

OK, all caught up. No surprise on carrying the fruit. We can't take it in or out of California due to the fruit flies and stuff.

No surprise that your DH ordered the salads! We would starve without some sort of provisions in the room! That was a measly amount of sauce. Now I want spaghetti!

Looking forward to what you have planned for the night!

Shall we just say that DH and I had a bit of a minor disagreement about provisions for Jenolan?

But it worked out in the end. We were really only there for 1 night and given that we spent all of 8 hours in the room (with the majority of that time spent sleeping), there really wasn't much time for us to eat in the room anyway.

I want spaghetti too. But we had a seafood pasta on Monday night for dinner and I think I might need to cook something different for dinner tonight.

It might not be done that way BUT I could never pass up coming along with any adventure with YOU You could probably make laundry day exciting for me just add pictures and narrate the way you always do and I would be IN

Now here we have the shirts that are made from cotton. Did you know that cotton fabric originated in ....? I learn so much from you

Now you've made me .
Glad to see you here, Ruthie.

Hehhehe welcome to Sydney...and its traffic! But seriously, 2.5 hours from the airport to Glenbrook is bad, even by Sydney standards Glad your survived the drive...

And is that sweet potato I see atop your tenderloin!

Cant wait to read your take on Sydney and the BM

My friends in Pyrmont said almost the exact same thing!

Yes. That is sweet potato on top of the tenderloin. Masterchef has a LOT to answer for.

This trip wasn't too crammed with activities. We did have a lot of 'downtime' on this trip. So we really didn't cover too much.

I also agree that cheese is not a dessert The souffle sounds pretty good though!

Wow that traffic was bad I didn't realise how lucky I was not hitting any traffic on my way to the airport in Sydney - I might have missed my flight if it was like that! That would have been early afternoon I think.

I'm kind of used to windy roads and have no problem driving in the Dandenongs after dark, but strange windy roads in the dark still kind of scare me. The ones in the US will be interesting driving on the wrong side of the road

Your accommodation looks nice enough, even if the TV is in a bit of a useless position

The traffic travelled slow and it moved. There were some spots of stop and start but once you got used to the speed, it wasn't so bad. Although....at the time, I was chaffing at the bit. I had hoped to make it to Jenolan earlier so that we could get an earlier tour done.

That last 10 km down to Jenolan is much more windy that the Dandenongs. And the roads in the Dandenongs are designed for 2 car traffic. The road at Jenolan masquerades as 2-car traffic.

We never turned the TV on; so I have no idea if it worked or not!

Yaaaay Jenolan! Love that place

Hope you'll like what we did there.

Great start

I'm feeling a bit sheepish reading your TR, as I realise that I unknowingly committed an offence on an Aussie trip 4 years back. I visited Tropical Fruit World on a trip to the Gold Coast and bought a couple of bits of fruit at the end to take back to the hotel. From memory though, Tropical Fruit World is just over the border of NSW. Oh dear.

If you never never tell, we'll never never know.

(I'd never admit to having taken from from Queensland into NSW....even if I did kinda do it on a driving trip.....no, not me.)

You're not the first, we almost always buy fruit on the drive home from QLD (through Stanthorpe/Warwick area)

It just seems so easy to forget when you're in a car and oblivious to state border signs.

As far as I was aware, the only times it's a BIG no-no where you can get into real trouble is going into WA or Tassie. The other borders are too hard to control with so many road crossings. You'd usually see signs advising when organic matter is not allowed in. But I'd say not taking it on any flights is a good rule of thumb

I never forget when I'm flying between states. There are just so many signs and bins out at the airports that its hard to miss.

I did not know that you should not take fruit across state borders in Australia. I most certainly did not know this about California either. We may have broken that particular rule.

The traffic looked awful. The hotel looks really nice and the meals looked delicious.

Corinna

Seems like the no-fruit fly-ing across states was a good discussion point for this TR.

The meals were delicious on this trip.

 

[zanzibar138]

And the roads in the Dandenongs are designed for 2 car traffic.

Not all of them... But yes, the major ones are that most tourists would drive on.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Not all of them... But yes, the major ones are that most tourists would drive on.

True. I have a friend that lives in Gembrook. The road down to her residence is pretty much one-car wide. And I do cut across some of the off-tourist roads to get back quicker down the mountain that are one-car wide.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

It seems I still hold a clean Australian criminal record

Because I was taking the fruit from NSW into Queensland, I'm okay. It wouldn't have been quite so okay had I been travelling in the opposite direction.

http://www.quarantinedomestic.gov.au/destination-queensland.html

 

[zanzibar138]

Still on the fruit subject

I just remembered that over summer when I was working for a berry farm, one of the sales reps took samples of some new varieties up to Sydney with him on the plane. It was just a regular flight and he didn't do anything special. I even questioned him about because, for someone who grew up in Perth, it was such a strange concept for me, him just taking a load of fruit up to Sydney on the plane

So it must depend on where you're going.

But I stick by my earlier comment, for any visitors to Australia, I think it would be a good rule of thumb to not take any organic matter on flights.

 

[PrincessInOz]

It seems I still hold a clean Australian criminal record

Because I was taking the fruit from NSW into Queensland, I'm okay. It wouldn't have been quite so okay had I been travelling in the opposite direction.

http://www.quarantinedomestic.gov.au/destination-queensland.html

That's good research! Well done.




I refuse to comment on which direction I might have been driving in and if I might or might not have had fruit with me on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.

Still on the fruit subject

I just remembered that over summer when I was working for a berry farm, one of the sales reps took samples of some new varieties up to Sydney with him on the plane. It was just a regular flight and he didn't do anything special. I even questioned him about because, for someone who grew up in Perth, it was such a strange concept for me, him just taking a load of fruit up to Sydney on the plane

So it must depend on where you're going.

But I stick by my earlier comment, for any visitors to Australia, I think it would be a good rule of thumb to not take any organic matter on flights.

I agree. Much easier to eat the fruit in the state you're starting out from and buy more fruit in the other state.

 

[PrincessInOz]

The Wondrous Binomil - Into the Jenolan Caves



At over 340 million years old, the Jenolan Caves are considered to be the most ancient discovered caves in the world.

For tens of thousands of years, the Jenolan area has been part of the culture of local indigenous Aboriginal people. This place, the Jenolan Caves, holds special significance to the Gundungurra people, who knew it as 'Binomil' or 'Bin-oo-mur'. Gundungurra people's knowledge of the Jenolan Caves goes back a long way, as there is a Dreamtime creation story about how the whole countryside came into being. The story describes an almighty struggle between two ancestral creator spirits - one a giant eel-like creature, Gurangatch, and the other, Mirrigan, a large native cat or quoll. The Gundungurra people believed that the subterranean water in the caves held great curative powers and they brought the sick in to bathe in the water.


There are at least a dozen different caves in Jenolan. The caves were the reason that DH and I were keen to head here. We last saw Jenolan over 20 years ago and only did one cave then. I've forgotten which one we saw but I suspect it might have been the Lucas Cave. We'd always said that we needed to come back and see more of the caves here and we finally made it back on this trip.


Most of the caves are 'show' caves that you walk through; although there are some 'adventure' caves that you negotiate your way through tight spaces. Due to the popularity of the tours, I had checked out the schedules beforehand and was delighted to discover that there would be a Friday night tour running. Naturally, I pre-booked us in to secure our spot. The cave that was on offer tonight was the Jubilee Cave. From the promotional material online, it seemed like this particular cave was the one that they really restricted the number of visitors going through and there were a smaller number of tours run through this cave. When I rang to book, the person I spoke to definitely confirmed that promotional line as well. The Jubilee Cave was named such as it was discovered in the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria's reign, 1893. Being the most strenuous of all caves, with a huge number of steps, I had high hopes that we would all enjoy this night tour. It is listed as a 'show' cave; but it is borderline easy 'adventure' cave.







The Jubilee cave is entered through the Imperial Cave....







....and despite our guide rushing us through, I did manage some early snaps of the Imperial Cave.








Spooky, isn't it?







The Imperial Cave showed some very early promise of what was to come.








The caves at Jenolan are what are known as limestone caves. Limestone is a sedimentary rock which simply means that the rock formed as a result of material being built up by its constituents being laid down over a period of time and gradually becoming cemented together. When rain falls, carbon dioxide dissolves into the water causing it to become slightly acidic. As the water seeps through the soil it becomes even more acidic in nature. One of the important qualities of limestone is that it is easily dissolved in a weak acidic solution when compared to other rock types. The water enters fractures in the rock, dissolving the rock as it progresses. Fractures are widened over time and as underground spaces grow there is further cave development as surrounding rock collapses. As the water table drops dry spaces remain and these are what are inspected on cave tours.








Inspecting the spaces is debatable....it's more like inspecting the chemical deposition of minerals!
Stalactites, stalagmites and other cave formations (often called 'speleothems') are examples of limestone structures that form through evaporation. In a cave, droplets of water seeping down from above enter the cave through fractures or other pore spaces in the cave ceiling.







There they may evaporate before falling to the cave floor. When the water evaporates, any calcium carbonate that was dissolved in the water will be deposited on the cave ceiling. Over time this evaporative process can result in an accumulation of icicle-shaped calcium carbonate on the cave ceiling. These deposits are known as stalactites. If the droplet falls to the floor and evaporates a stalagmite could grow upwards from the cave floor.
We all know the saying....'tites hang tightly from the ceiling whilst the 'mites might grow to reach the ceiling.






When mite and tite meet, you'll get a column.







We were definitely coming to inspect the limestone formations in the Jubilee Caves.






The official start of the Jubilee Caves and the central point is Cook's Cavern. It is a chamber in the middle of the U-shaped passage that is classed as Jubilee Caves. I found this map on-line and thought it might help give you an idea of the layout.






Our first stop was the Pincushion. Named because it has an extraordinary cluster of helictites. Helictites are formed by water slowly entering the caves through pores and cracks in the limestone. Helictites are named from the Greek word 'helix', meaning 'a twist'. They are small irregular growths which proceed in any direction contrary to gravity. The most accepted theory for their growth and development is a combination of capillary action and hydrostatic pressure. The saturated solution emanates from a pore so slowly that it doesn't form a drop. Evaporation occurs and a minute layer of crystal is deposited. A capillary tube slowly develops, through which the solution is drawn, extending the helictite. Because no drop forms, gravity has no effect and the helictite can develop in any direction, defying gravity. Formations like these were pretty much everywhere in this small space and so pretty to look at!







We then headed to Victoria's Bower. There is a pretty steep staircase heading up here and the space is pretty tight.







Check out these dripstone straws! Straws are thin walled hollow formations that resemble drinking straws. As water drips slowly from the roof of the cave, it deposits a microscopic ring of calcite crystal. These rings continue to build and can form straws many centimeters long.







We headed back to Cook’s Cavern and across to the Alabaster Hall. The Alabaster Hall is named because of the dazzling white stalactites and stalagmites in this cavern.







Our guide said that some of the purest calcites in the Jenolan Caves area could be found here.















Even if sometimes there is mud at the end of them.








But it's not all dripstone formations in here. You'll also find some flowstones.







Water reaching the roof of a cave does not always form drops. Sometimes it trickles down a rock face, depositing a narrow strip of calcite, that eventually results in a thin sheet, growing at an angle from the wall. Shawls often contain interesting folds, which occur because the initial trickle turned from side to side in its downward path along the rock face. The rich coloured banding that is often seen, is caused by other minerals in the solution, such as iron oxide.







I found this patch of calcite crystals somewhere in the cave. The guide didn't point them out or make special reference to them. I just liked how it looked.







The things I find fascinating! Check out the old-fashioned light fixtures in this cave. The guide said that some of the other caves use LED lighting but the lighting system in the Jubilee is still original.








You may notice that some of the stalactites are broken off. "Souveniring" in this cave system has been outlawed now….but it used to be pretty prevalent. Sadly, there were quite a few broken off mites and tites in this cave system.










(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Our tour continued to the other side of Cook's Cavern.






The white stalactites were everywhere here.






I believe this is the Whale's Throat. It's pretty appropriately named, don't you think?







It was pretty spooky on this side of the Jubilee.







We were heading through some pretty tight spaces and this passage reduced to a point where we had to bend over and stoop in half in order to get through. The taller folk in our party did grumble a little in this area; but it was all in good fun.







It did all eventually lead out to an up and down stairs.








We took the upstairs first.







I think this is Alabaster Hall. I believe the guide said that the air quality in the Alabaster Hall was the worst in the Jenolan Caves that were opened to public. It wasn't difficult to breathe or anything but climbing those stairs did leave us a bit puffed and it took longer to recover than normal.







The details in here were stunning!






















We headed back to that junction and took the stairs down. Our destination down here was the Water Cavern. This is the northernmost part of the show cave system. If there has been a lot of rain there is the chance the creek will be seen flowing through this area, otherwise it is rare to see water in this area.







The Water Cavern? Take a look at the roof. That’s mud up there.







There will be lots of water in here at various times. The interesting fact about this area of the Jubilee Caves is that it was only recently discovered (like in the last 10 years or so) that if you were brave enough to wade through the mud and wriggle your way out, this part of the caves does have a separate entrance to the one through the Imperial Cave. It seem inconceivable that this separate entrance was discovered only 10 years ago. But the guide said that that wriggle space involved holding your breath and pushing your way through mud. I think I'll stick with the Imperial Cave entrance.




So, how did we fare? DH and I LOVED being in the caves.

DS? Well, he kinda freaked a little. In many of the twists and turns we took, the guide figured it was kinder to point out the larger areas where DS could stay behind whilst the rest of the group moved on. I guess we know he's a little claustrophobic.







By this stage, we'd seen all of the Jubilee Cave and it was time to head out. The tour was meant to be a 2-hour tour but we'd managed to stay in for just on 3 hours. DS being claustophobic seemed to be the main cause of our extended tour and we were really glad that our fellow cave explorers were very understanding. The guide was more than happy to take the extra time with us and DS....turns out the Jubilee Caves were one of his favourites.

I did check with the guide. The prevalence of claustrophobic guests is more common that anyone would know. The standard practise is for the guide to call for help and to get someone else to come and escort the person out. They cannot leave any guest(s) alone in the caves or let them head out by themselves. As we were doing the night tour, there was no one else around and so DS had to come along with us.



On the way back out, we were also allowed to take all the pictures of the Imperial Caves that we wanted.































Except for the guide, we were the last ones out.







It was beautiful in both caves.








Definitely a tour worth sinking your teeth into.







For anyone interested, that's where we headed up to. You will end up climbing over 650 steps in this caves system and the tour group is limited to a maximum of 16 people in the group.







Everyone called it a night at this point and we all walked back to the Caves House complex. It was past 11 pm when we got back to our room and we crashed!


If you are planning a trip out here, I would highly recommend that you stay the night. By Australian standards, the room rates at the Caves House and/or Mountain Lodge aren't too bad. Our room started at $165 per couple for the night. We were charged an extra $20 for the extra person.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I refuse to comment on which direction I might have been driving in and if I might or might not have had fruit with me on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.

Who would have though fruit would be so interesting

 

[losfp]

Oh... The Jubilee cave is wonderful, but rarely features on the schedule I hope you got to see my personal favourite - the Ribbon Cave..

The last time we had been to Jenolan was when my wife was pregnant with our first. Last weekend, she took the aforementioned child, now six, to the caves for a mum/daughter weekend while I took care of the 13 month old at home. DD6 LOVED the caves, and the Ribbon was her favourite too!

Amazing detail in your report, loving it!!!

 

[zanzibar138]

Sorry, but after my cave experience in Vietnam, that does not seem the least bit 'adventurous' Looks great though! Such beautiful formations, especially the helictites, which I've never heard of. Definitely going on 'the list'.

I think DS did very well being claustrophobic. I can definitely see how bits of that tour would have been quite uncomfortable for him.

What's with all the chicken wire in some of the photos? Is that so people can't touch the formations? It's sad that a selfish few ruin it for everyone

 

[ACDSNY]

What's with all the chicken wire in some of the photos? Is that so people can't touch the formations? It's sad that a selfish few ruin it for everyone

I was wondering the same thing.

PIO, the photos are amazing and the cave had a nice variety of formations.

 

[losfp]

What's with all the chicken wire in some of the photos? Is that so people can't touch the formations? It's sad that a selfish few ruin it for everyone

Yes unfortunately I believe that's the reason. Back in the day there were lots of people breaking decorations off as souvenirs and writing their names on the walls/ceiling etc - there are some examples on the Lucas Cave tour that the guide usually points out.

Oddly, one of my favourite shots that I ever took at Jenolan involves chicken wire!!!!

It's an interesting illustration of just how quickly decorations can form in the right circumstances.

 

[zanzibar138]

Yes unfortunately I believe that's the reason. Back in the day there were lots of people breaking decorations off as souvenirs and writing their names on the walls/ceiling etc - there are some examples on the Lucas Cave tour that the guide usually points out.

Oddly, one of my favourite shots that I ever took at Jenolan involves chicken wire!!!!

It's an interesting illustration of just how quickly decorations can form in the right circumstances.

Wow! I guess the chicken wire might eventually become part of the cave. Then they'd have to fence off the chicken wire to stop people souveniring those bits

 

[Luvchefmic]

I feel for your son The first time I realized I had a problem with claustrophobia
( I may have told you this ) was when my oldest daughter and I went to
Howe Caverns in upstate NY

I had no idea I would react like that , but all of a sudden I felt like the walls were closing in, I was perspiring, and I was mortified when I had to have the people behind me back up so I could get out of there I admit your photos are gorgeous but I had to scroll through pretty fast as I was starting to feel that feeling Hugs to your DS Looks like he did pretty well

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I feel for your DS. He did better than I would have; I think those confined spaces would have brought on a panic attack.

A place like that is one I'd prefer to admire through your beautiful pics.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Gorgeous photos! That will be closest I will ever get as I was feeling squirmy just looking at them! Your son was a real trooper to make it through!

 

[battymum]

Just another comment on the traffic - we live about 5 minutes from Glenbrook and would only ever leave an hour for getting to the airport - maybe an hour and half if it was peak hour - bit would check traffic reports especially the M5 tunnel - keep in mind I always aim to be at the airport at least three hours before flight .

So it must have been unusually busy - but you get that too!

Anyway, loving this TR of my backyard!!