Jenolan Caves, Blue Mountains and Three Sisters (yes in Australia)

Thanks to Marianne we had a most unforgettable day. We left Wahroonga and headed toward the Blue Mountains. After a couple of hours of traveling we stopped at a picnic area in the rugged outdoors. It’s amazing how good a hot cup of tea and sandwiches taste when you’re traveling.


In the early morning from a distance the hills looks blue. This is because of the eucalyptus trees.


Upward winding roads eventually gave way to cultivated plains and before we knew it we had arrived at the Jenolan Caves.


The crystalline limestone formations were deposited by running water over many centuries. It was strange to learn that the current geography dates back to over 600 million years ago. That’s almost incomprehensible!





The Three Sisters are located in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales. These strange rock formations are composed of stacks of horizontal Hawkesbury sandstone, laid down in the Triassic period. The Blue Mountains are not mountains at all, but an elevated plateau, pushed up from the surrounding level in the Tertiary period. The plateau has been chiseled and eroded by nature into a series of spectacular gorges and valleys. Already these valleys occupy much more space than the ridges; with every rock fall they get larger, and in time the ridges will disappear. As we stood at the edge of the plateau we couldn’t help but compare the magnificent expanse to the Grand Canyon and in fact, Marianne told us this IS Australia’s Grand Canyon.


Hunter Valley, New South Wales
The higher edge of the valley, rising perhaps one or two thousand feet from the floor, is often miscalled a mountain, because when seen from below, it looks like one. Actually it is the outer edge of a plateau.