The Blue Mountains, Three Sisters and a Trip to the River Styx

I tumbled out of bed and headed into the kitchen and began to make my breakfast. We were all up early because we were travelling to the Blue Mountains. We had been to the Blue Mountain once before to Jenolan Caves, but this time we were going to Scenic World. At Scenic World there is the world's steepest railway, a Skyway and Cableway.

We all hurried through breakfast, morning jobs and the last of the packing.

"Time to go," Dad called.

We all pulled on our shoes and grabbed our books and MP3 Players before heading outside to the car. It was a long drive to the Blue Mountains and we had to stop for some morning tea at the bottom of the Mountains before driving for a few more minutes to the top.

The Three Sisters

We were going to see The Three Sisters which are three huge rocks that are supposed to look like three ladies.

Dad parked and we all piled out of the car. We went for a bush walk which had lots of lookouts from which you could see The Three Sisters and the mountains. Sophie didn't want to go close to the edge of the lookout because she doesn't like heights, but Dad managed to coax her to come have a look.

One of the lookouts

The views from all the lookouts around the walk were amazing. I really enjoyed it. When we had finished the walk we went to buy some food before heading to the cabin we were staying in.

It was a three room cabin. There was a kitchen cross sitting room cross bedroom. The settee had a bed above it and the settee could be folded down into a double bed. There was the bathroom and another bedroom with a bunk bed and a double bed.

Originally Sophie and I were going to have the bunk beds in the bedroom and Mum and Dad were going to have the double bed in the same room while Imogen and Charlotte slept in the sitting room, but Mum decided that she would put all us girls in the same room. So Sophie and I had the double bed, the big girls had the bunk beds and Mum and Dad slept in the sitting room.

"These cabins have a games room," Dad said. "Should we take a walk down and have a look at it?"

Charlotte playing Wii Sport

We all went to the games room and found a TV, a Wii and a pool table. Dad taught Imogen to play pool while Charlotte taught Sophie and me how to play Wii Sports. It was a lot of fun even if you looked ridiculous bouncing around in front of the TV.

We had ravioli in a tomato sauce for dinner and afterwards we had some chocolate. Sophie and I had showers and we all watched How to Train Your Dragon.

We all had to go to bed at the same time because it was such a small cabin.

I was very careful to lie in the bed as far away from Sophie as possible because I have this reputation for kicking people in bed.

Imogen and Charlotte had a hard time getting to sleep because neither of them snore but Sophie and I snore rather loudly.

In the morning we had Nutri Grain or flavoured packet porridge. We did the dishes, showered and made the beds.

Dad drove to Scenic World and we all queued for tickets.

The Railway from the bottom

The first thing  we did was go on the world's steepest railway. There were three settings on the chairs in the train. The first was Cliffhanger which was the steepest at 64 degrees and then there was original at 52 degrees  or Laidback at 20 degrees. We all wanted to go Cliffhanger except for Sophie but she agreed to do it with us.

The train dropped dramatically and went into a dark tunnel. We all began to slide out of our seats (there were no seat belts). We had to brace ourselves with our legs or slide right off the seats. The train came out of the tunnel and we saw the beautiful view before the track levelled out and we could sit back on the seats.

The Railway had been great fun, but Sophie didn't enjoy it at all and had spent her time clinging to Dad.

We went for a walk along ramps through the bush. Scenic World used to be a coal mine and there were lots of signs telling us about it. We saw a coal miner's cottage and we were allowed to go inside. It didn't look like a nice place to sleep in especially in the cold mountain weather.

The old Skyway which they stopped using in 2004 (they've got a new one)

After the walk we went on the Skyway, the Railway again (it was even better going back up) and the Cableway. Someone on the Skyway commented that it was a long way to fall to the ground.

"Not long at all," the guide said cheerfully. "Only six seconds to the bottom."

We stopped for lunch before going for another walk. This one had a lot of steps and we all raced each other up them. We saw a waterfall on this walk. It was a long walk and we were tired by the time we were down.

Mum went to look in the souvenir shop with Sophie while the rest of us went on the Railway another two times before we all headed home.

Sophie had bought us all these beaded bracelets from the souvenir shop and they were very pretty. We went back down to the games room for the evening and played pool and Wii again.

For dinner we had fish and chips which was really nice. We watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as we ate and then went back to the games room for the rest of the evening.

On the last day we packed everything again and loaded the car. Dad drove us all the way to Jenolan. We were going to see another cave.

This cave was the River Cave. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately it had two ladders which Sophie didn't want to climb. The River Cave had (surprise, surprise) a river which they called the River Styx from Greek mythology. There was also another one called the Pool of Reflections which reflected perfectly the roof of the cave on the water which was slightly weird.

One of the cave formations

Then we started the long drive home. It had been a good holiday, but we were all glad to get home and see Duncan and the cats. The next day we went and picked Nora up from the kennels.
 

Stalagmites, Cottages and a Lack of Forks

We didn't think we were going away this holiday. We all expected a quiet time at home with the family. We were wrong.

"Sophie, Gemma-Rose, I have booked a cottage in the Blue Mountains and we are going to see Jenolan Caves," Mum said.

"What?"

I had never been to see caves before. I have walked round museums and had trips to the beach but never caves.

We had to get up very early on the day of our holiday. We rushed to have breakfast, pack the food and check that we had everything in our bags. Then we left the house and animals to the boys' care.

It was a three hour drive but I had a good book to read. Just before we reached the caves there was a very narrow winding road that we had to go round and I felt sick. At last the car arrived at the caves and Dad parked. We climbed out and looked around. The ticket office and souvenir shops were built in mock Tudor style.

The first cave we went to see was the Diamond Cave. It was a very pretty cave with lots of crystal. The guide told us that lots of the stalagmites and stalactites were in shapes of things and had names. There was one that was called the Indian Elephant. Dad kept bashing his head into the rocks in this cave.  

Then we had lunch. There was a very inquisitive bird that came right onto our table and sat right in front of me. I hoped it wouldn't steal my lunch. I remember years ago, when we went on a beach trip, a magpie stole a piece of avocado right  from my sandwich. I got most upset (even though I don't like avocado).

After the Diamond Cave we went to see the Lucas Cave which was huge. One of the chambers in the cave was called the Cathedral and used to be used for church services. They had a rock that was the altar and they had a place called the organ and there were 'stained glass' windows. It was gorgeous.

The guide demonstrated how good the sound was in the cave by playing a piece of music and there wasn't any echo.

The guide told us that in the original tour, years ago, the visitors would go down into the Lucas Cave with two guides. One guide would sit on a hessian sack and slide down a slope with a rope until he reached a certain point and then he jumped off. Then the other guide would give one of the visitors a hessian sack and a candle. The visitor would hold onto the rope with one hand and the candle with the other, and slide down until the guide at the bottom grabbed them. But if their candle went out and the guide didn't see them coming, then the visitor would keep on going till they hit a rock called Full Stop Rock and met a very painful end.

After the Lucas Cave we went to see the cottage where we were staying. It was a wooden building and there were kangaroos literally in the garden and they weren't afraid of us at all.

The living room in the cottage had two settees and a TV. It looked very nice. The kitchen had a bottle of drinking water on the bench which you had to pump water out of. The bedrooms were the best bit. They were nice rooms. Us four girls were sharing a room together. Our room had a set of bunk beds on either side of the room. All the beds had thick quilts and an extra blanket. We had also brought sleeping bags.

Mum and Dad went to buy food for the next few days while we stayed at the cottage watching a movie while Imogen made dinner.

It was freezing in the cottage and we pulled out the extra blankets from on our beds and snuggled up. When Mum and Dad arrived home, all they saw were huge piles of blankets with the vague shape of girls beneath them.

Dinner was slightly more complicated than we had thought it would be because there were only three forks and five spoons, and there were six of us. I was one of the people who had to eat with a spoon instead of a fork, and it is a rather hard thing to do when dinner is spaghetti bolognaise, Then we washed the bowls and ate ice cream.

When we had finished the ice cream and cleaned up, we watched another movie, then went to bed.

In the morning I was awake first and waited for everybody else to wake up. When they did eventually wake up, I served out bowls of cocoa pops. Then when everybody else went for showers, Mum and I cooked bacon, and while I had my shower, Dad cooked the eggs.

"Careful, the water from the shower goes all over the floor," Mum said.

When I'd had my shower (being careful not to flood the bathroom) we ate bacon and eggs before I dried my hair (Sophie kept taking pictures while I was drying it), and then we got ready for the fifteen minutes' drive back to the caves.

"We will go see the Nettle Cave first," Mum said. "The Nettle Cave is a self-guided tour."

Mum went to get the tickets and these strange phone things that we used to listen to the recording of a man telling us all about the cave.

This cave wasn't as good as the other ones but it was still good. There was a formation called The Willows and it looked like its name. The Nettle Cave was a lot more opened up than the other caves so wasn't as pretty.

When we had finished seeing this cave, we had lunch and the inquisitive bird appeared again hoping for some lunch.

"I think we will do the Temple of Baal Cave next," Mum said, and we all agreed.

We packed the lunch things back into the car and then waited for the Temple of Baal tour to begin. The group for the Temple of Baal was very small. Just us and three other people.

There was a small cave in the roof of one of the chambers. The cave had stalagmites and stalactites in it and they called this Paradise. Under Paradise was a place they called the Devil's Kitchen.

"Why don't we do a walk?" Mum suggested, after we came out of the cave.

We all nodded.

The first part was full of nettles and Imogen and I both got pricked.

"Who wants to go back the same way we came and who wants to take a different route back?" Mum asked.

"Let's take a different route back," Charlotte said.

This turned out to be a very hard walk. It went steeply up and up then occasionally down. My legs hurt from the amount of walking we had been doing and I was thinking that the other route had been a lot easier. Then we came out onto a view high above the caves. The view was amazing and there was the Carlotta Arch. It was massive.

"That walk was definitely worth the view."

Then we went back to the cottage.

Mum and Dad attempted to cook sausages on the outside barbeque, while Imogen cooked some chips in the oven. We all love chips.

We watched another movie over dinner and dessert. Our dessert was ice cream again but Mum had a brilliant idea. She suggested we eat it with cocoa pops on top which does taste great!

"Gemma-Rose, Sophie, why don't you two go have a shower before bed, so we can be out quicker in the morning?" Mum asked.

I forgot about the whole flooding thing and when I came out of the bathroom, I saw my pants were drenched because I'd left them on the floor.

I came out of the bathroom and showed my pants to the rest of the family. "I got them a bit wet," I said.

"A bit?"

"Okay, a lot."

Dad turned the gas heater on and draped my pants over a chair in front of it. After a few minutes they began to steam. Soon it was really warm in the cottage and we had to open the window. After a while the pants were dry.

"Thank you, Dad," I said looking at my (dry) pants.

A while later Mum and Dad went to bed leaving us to finish off the movie before following them to bed.

In the morning I was again first up. I crept as silently as a ninja out of the bedroom. CREAK! went the floor. I winced and took another step. CREAK! I gave up the whole quiet thing.

"Good morning."

I turned to see Sophie.

"Want some cocoa pops?" I asked.

She nodded and I poured some into a bowl for her and than we sat down to eat. Soon everybody else joined us. After breakfast, we began to pack up our bags.

Sophie and I stripped the beds and folded up the blankets and put away the sleeping bags. I took one last look at the room and closed the door behind me and then we left the cottage and piled into the car and drove back to the caves.

We waited outside the entrance to the Orient Cave. When the guide arrived we went back through the man-made blasted tunnel that we had to go through for the Temple of Baal Cave, and then through a different door and into the most gorgeous cave yet. All the chambers had names. One was upper Egypt and the other was lower Egypt. Another was India. The scene was breathtaking. This one was my favourite cave of them all and I savoured every moment of it. It had the biggest stalagmite ever. It nearly reached the roof.

Then we went on another walk before getting back into the car. We were going home after the best holiday ever. The car trundled away from the caves and I strained for a last look as they disappeared.

Then we were home, saying hello to the cats, Nora and the boys. Sophie and I entered our room. It was exactly the way we had left it.

We were home from the best holiday we had ever had.

Have you ever been to see any caves?