Just got back from the Jenolan caves. Breathtaking sights. The caves have been dated at 340 million years old. Before fish. Yeah. Fish. The formations are breathtaking and the photos I managed to steal from other people (my camera died the day before and even though I remembered my charger, I forgot my converter) just don’t do it any justice. It is definitely a must-see for anyone even remotely in the vicinity of Australia. We are in the Blue Mountains this weekend, about 2.5 hours from downtown Sydney. Yesterday we went on a little day hike to the three sisters. There were two giant gondolas, and a little cart that took you down to the bottom where there used to be a mining village. The cart was kind of like a roller coaster in that the drop out of the top was A 52 DEGREE SLOPE. It is the steepest of its kind ever created. They played the Indiana Jones music as it left. Pretty cool.
Down at the bottom there were a series of walkways that reminded me of an Ewok village. It had just poured while we were driving up the winding road to the mountain so everything was soaked. The waterfall next to the three sisters was completely brown from all the sediment that was getting washed into it, and they worker at the top of the gondola station said it was about two meters higher than it normally ran. Robin managed to bite it pretty hard on the walkways right after Howard (our trip leader for the weekend) told his group to be careful when walking down the pathways. Peter got it on video. It’s hilarious.
(insert video)
Right after this event Keith once again showed his giant aversion to nature. (Quick sidenote: earlier that day at our walk through the botanical gardens, Keith was inducted into the honorary Australian club by our guide when he blurted out FUCK! while our guide was showing us around. Admittedly, we had just seen a brown snake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudechis_australis) flit behind our guide as he was walking backward, and since Keith and I were at the back of the group Keith had just asked where it was, and I may or may not have whispered THERE! and pointed right next to him. Either way, he was momentarily inducted into the honorary Australian club, before the guide learned that he ran away from cockroaches, and immediately dismissed him)
ANYways, Keith was walking down the freshly-watered path when he noticed a piece of mud on his leg. He went to go wipe it off and it seemed particularly slimy. He went to wipe it off again, and he realized it was a leech. I was not there to witness it, but the report is that he ran from the back of the group yelling HOWAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDD! and sticking his leg up and hopping every few steps. Howard plucked it off for him and told us all the story later while we laughed. He then told us to check ourselves for leeches, as we wouldn’t be able to feel them because of the chemicals in their saliva. Everyone sort of spot-checked themselves and we got back on the bus. Ten minutes later Katie, who was sitting right behind me, said “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWW! I got a leech on my toe!” Everyone laughed and Nat (our trip leader from G.E.D. came to pick it off for her. By the end of the bus ride 5 people in total found leeches on them.
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