Hi, This will be a tricky one as I have so much to write but so little time.
The weekend have been superb. It so much to write about. But I will keep it short and only about Saturday even though the other days where brilliant too. I have so many images and they will all be on flickr eventually. But I have atleast provided some.
I start of with this one. I just love it
Any how... I wanted to do something, and the friends I have got here so far where all going away for the weekend. So I decided to do the same. I heard a lot of good things about the Blue Mountains. I looked it up on the web and found a package with bus to the village of Katoomba to see the spectacular views over the Eucalyptus covered valley and to see the "the three Sisters", (the 3 mountain tops that have quite a spectacular story behind them, but I don't have time to write it down, so if you are curious, go ahead and look it up)
And then further on to the Jenolan limestone caves. I went for the "Extended full tour of the caves where kids under 10 whereat allowed". I thought... "Great, If I'm going there, I want to see it all and I cant be bothered with kids". The bus left 8.15 on Saturday morning. When on the bus we had 2 hours ahead of us to our first stop. The first thing the driver says is "All of you have booked the standard tour of the caves, apart from one person. He has to get ready to wear a hard hat, overall and ropes. And be prepared to get really dirty. He is going down what is named the PLUG HOLE. This was not what it said on the package. I got really worried what I got my self into. And the plug hole sounds pretty nasty (in more ways than one). For you who don't know. I have a great fear of just thinking about getting stuck in a narrow space in a cave. Especially after watching the film The Decent (one of the scariest movies I have ever seen). When we eventually got to our first destination we have about an hour to do what ever we like. But the bus driver says "Every one can wander off and do what ever they like, but I need to have a word with the guy who booked the adventure tour. I need to prepare him for a few things. I seriously thought I was going to freak out. He said I had to get something to eat here in Kotoomba as I would have no time when at the caves. My tour was going to be 2 hours in the caves and I needed to get "kitted up" as soon as I got there. I told the driver that if I'm likely to crawl around in really tight spaces where I could get the feeling of being stuck, I wont do it, then I rather go on the ordinary tour. We decided to talk to the guides as soon as we got there.
While in Katoomba, the weather was quite bad. But I decided to take a trip down to the valley with the worlds steepest train, (53 degrees or something). When I got down under the clouds everything was clear. In the valley there was a rain forest. It felt like being in a Jurrasic park setting. Apart from the valley it self the place was quite exploited to suit touristing families and bus groups, which I didn't like very much. I bought my self a sandwich and got back on the bus after about an hour. We had another 1,5 hour ride in front of us before we reached the caves. Wehn we finally got there the driver asked me if I was going to do it or not. Well, I didn't really think, I said yes. I joined a group of 8 other people to go on the tour. We where all dressed up in blue overalls, with mining lights, and ropes and stuff. We headed further up where we had to vinch our selves in a hole. Then the cave adventures started... full on. We started climbing through these limestone caves with stalagtites hanging down from the ceiling. We got to crawl through very narrow spaces and little holes. At one stage we had to sit down in a big cave room and turn our lights out. That was the darkest dark I have ever experienced. Sorry for sqeezing everything in to a few sentences, there is so much to say. Just a few notes. As soon as I acutally went of the bus I wasn't scared. The guides where phenomenal. And I was never ever, at any stage scared while in the cave. When looking at the photos, I cant believe I actually did it. If I would have seen the before hand I would never have done it. I felt like a hero when we finally came out on the other side. I would love to tell you all the details, and hope to do so some day.
This is the best adventure so far. These are the kind of things that will make me earn my mustache.
