Today was our first full day in the Blue Mountains, and we boarded a bus for the Jenolan Caves! After a a gorgeous but slightly nerve racking bus ride down the thin and windy roads of the pass, we arrived at the caves. While we waited for Nat to settle the details of our tour, many of us used the time to observe the local arthropod diversity; at one point we all went into the women’s restroom to see a large huntsman spider above the toilet! Soon after, we began our tour into the dark Jenolan caves. I had never seen cave structures so beautiful: stalagmites and stalactites, shawls and helictites, and everything glittered! It was truly fantastic. After our 2 hour tour, and what seemed like an endless number of stairs, we exited the caves and had lunch by a water hole. We swam under the waterfall, jumped off the cliff into the pool, and tried to avoid stinging nettle as best we could. Afterwards, we packed up and returned to our hostel. Many of us ended the night with a large game of “Werewolf”, a fun card game Alex taught us. We then headed to bed to prepare for our bushwalk the next day.
Photographer: Anna DePaepe