The Jenolan experience: caves, rocks and a house called pins

Manila, Philippines -  I’ve had many occasions to play host to visiting turistas from back home and have done the appropriate turista things with them... the Opera House, the Rocks market on weekends, Paddy’s market (our version of 168), the Taronga Zoo... although no one has taken me up on my offer to do the Harbour Bridge climb yet. Some of the visitors I’ve taken out to the Blue Mountains, and have had to explain to sometimes irate relatives why the Blue Mountains are not really blue.

The technical explanation has to do with a phenomenon called mie scattering and terpenoids from the eucalyptus trees abundant in the mountains which cause a blue haze to shroud the range when viewed from a distance. But you don’t have to know the details to appreciate the Blue Mountains – by the way, in all the times I’ve been there, I haven’t yet seen the mountains tinged with blue – as it is a beautiful area rightfully declared a World Heritage Area by the UNESCO in 2000.

A personal favorite among the different components of what is known as the Greater Blue Mountains Area is the Jenolan Caves Karst Conservation Reserve, the world’s oldest known and dated open cave system believed to be approximately 340 million years old.

Caving is not for the faint of heart or the weak of knees: Stef is helped up by Kristina (top left) and slides down and crawls through narrow passages in the undeveloped sections of the Jenolan cave system.

Local tribes called the caves “Binoomea” or dark places and thus probably stayed away from them. Around 1835 the area was first recorded by the three Whalan brothers who were looking for either a bushranger or lost cattle. The name Jenolan is said to come from the aboriginal term Genowlan or high place, the name for a local mountain. In 1866 the caves, then called the Fish River Caves, came under government control, the second in the world to be set aside for conservation. Jeremiah Wilson was named the first “Keeper of the Caves,” and he discovered and explored many of the caves that were open to tourists. The lack of rules and the influx of tourists damaged the formations inside the caves, until souveniring was banned in 1872, and today the strict admonition to tourists is do not to touch – much more destroy or take – any of the formations or the walls of the caves.

For regular tourists, there are ten fully-guided cave tours ranging from an hour to two hours, from an “easy” 258 steps to a “strenuous” 910 steps. These ten caves are fully developed, with defined paths, paved steps and walkways with safety railings, and lighting that enhance the karst formations in the many caverns and pools that you visit on the tour.

On the easy Imperial Cave tour you follow the path of the ancient underground river, which is mostly level. This cave contains many fossils, including some Tasmanian Devil bones. The “strenuous” (the term is, of course, relative, as our group found it hardly strenuous) Lucas Cave tour brought us to what our guide said were some of the largest and highest chambers in the cave system. Here is the much photographed Broken Column which may one day, many many lifetimes from now, connect to form an Unbroken Column. The huge (over 50 meters high) Cathedral Chamber is often used for weddings, as well as the monthly cello and gypsy music concerts, and performances by the local band Didgeridoo Dingo.

Two Pinays in Jenolan: The author and Sofia in the Orient Cave which features many spectacular formations.

Early this year I did the Orient Cave tour, with new high-tech LED lighting to show off some pretty spectacular formations, like the amazing shawls that look like giant, thinly sliced liempo or bacon, and the worm- and mold-like helictites that do not form straight up or down like stalagmites or stalactites but go every which way. The formations in this cave were, believe it or not, steam cleaned in 1968. Off the Orient Cave is the small but reportedly very beautifully decorated Ribbon Cave, which only accommodates eight people at a time. We were not allowed to take a peek at this 60-meter cave, since it is another tour altogether and not often shown, we were told.

The other caves with guided tours are River, Chifley, Pool of Cerberus, Jubilee, Temple of Baal, and Nettle. Special tours can be arranged to other cave systems like Elder, Alladin, Jersey and Arch Caves.

And for those seeking something more than the regular tourist fare, Jenolan offers adventure caving tours, where there are no paved paths or steps, no LED lighting – only overalls, safety gear, a hard hat with headlamp as you climb, crawl, squeeze through dark, damp, ancient passageways into the innards of the cave system. There are guides at the head and back of the group to make sure nobody falls off or gets left behind. My out-of-town visitors never want to do this, so I recently did the introductory two-hour “plughole” tour with two Aussie friends, Kristina and Pete – and it was the best! Despite barbs from less adventurous friends, we’re set on doing the other more difficult and longer – some take seven and eight hours – tours.

Pigging out at Pins: Braised pork belly, linguine with tiger prawns, and a calorific bread pudding.

Jenolan is normally a three-hour drive from Sydney, but with ongoing roadworks in the Leura area of the Great Western Highway it could take up to six hours on a weekend or holiday. Roadworks are scheduled to be completed by the middle of next year. On a visit last year with family, we stayed over at a bed and breakfast in Leura, a quiet little town near Katoomba off the Great Western Highway. The innkeeper referred us to a local restaurant for dinner, and it has become a favorite stopover – for the gluttons among family and friends it is THE destination, not a stopover – each time we go that way.

Pins is what we would call a family restaurant (it is open only for dinner from Tuesdays to Saturdays), located in a charming white house on Megalong street, next door to the Woolworths supermarket. It is owned and run by Simon and Keiko Kjelgaard, he the lord over the open kitchen and she the charming lady at the front of house. But Keiko, who is Japanese, has a very definite influence on the menu at Pins, evidenced by a whole section of udon noodles – made fresh daily on the premises – seven items including curried beef, tsukimi soup with chicken, and a vegetarian stir fry with mushrooms, cabbage and silken tofu. Her hand can also be seen in the gyoza offering on the menu, as well as an Asian risotto, and the chargrilled teriyaki and yakitori.

The pastas are sumptuous and über tasteful, from the familiar bolognese and carbonara to the specials like florentine (sauteed mushroom with baby spinach and three cheeses), basquaise (chicken in bacon, onion and roast capsicum in tomato sage sauce) and caprice (chicken with roast garlic and avocado in reisling cream and lime juice).

Lovingly and expertly prepared by “Mr. and Mrs. Pins,” Simon and Keiko Kjelgaard.

While the items on the menu may be tempting enough, the daily blackboard specials deserve special attention. On a recent visit, we definitely did not go wrong with the pasta with spicy lamb meatballs (unforgettable!) in a sage, tomato and cheese fondue sauce, a slow braised pork belly with steamed greens and rice – very like our humba, comfort food taken to a new level – and linguine with garlic tiger prawns. Believe it or not we still managed to have dessert, but only because they looked so good – and yes, because we were gluttons!

A trip out to the Blue Mountains, even with the increased traffic along the highway, is well worth the effort, and who knows – you might even see how blue the mountains can be!