Jenolan Caves, Australia (February 17, 2016)

Reading Rating: Grab ‘n’ Go Coffee

Davin Reporting!
   
    Caves!  Caves!  Caves!  That is the order of the day.  We’re at Jenolan Caves, which is an extensive underground complex which was discovered back in 1830.  Different cave chambers can be toured, and it’s recommended to do three in one day... so, of course, we’re doing four!  Four caves is pretty much the maximum it’s possible to do in one day due to the way the tours overlap.  I have to admit that after doing two caves I had some reservations as to whether four would be too many, but in the end it was just about right. 

In between caves, we worked on eating our lunch (in 10 minute intervals)

    It’s not really practical to describe the caves.  It’s more something you need to experience for yourself.  Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of walking up and down and ducking underneath low passages and this constantly triggered my dizziness problems, but I persevered.  Overall, I will simply say that the Jenolan Caves were among the best caves I have seen.  I am on the fence as to whether the caves here were better than Postojnskajama in Slovenia, but they are really entirely different experiences, so it doesn’t really matter. (Kristin Interjection: “It wouldn’t be worth visiting Australia JUST for Jenolan Caves. So, whether to go to Postojnskajama or Jenolan really depends on which continent you happen to be going to on vacation. Then: Definitely go see the caves!”)

    The cabin that we’re staying in has a stove, which we had planned to take advantage of to make Mexican food.  We had purchased all of the supplies we needed with the exception of ground meat, which we had no way of keeping cold.  That meant that after leaving the caves we had to find a grocery store.  Originally, my plan was to drive to a store that I thought was 45 minutes away, but later discovered it was closer to two hours away!  Fortunately, we found a store in a smaller town only about 20 minutes distant, which had the supplies we needed and was (barely) still open.             

    By sheer serendipity the store also had a twelve pack of Dr. Pepper, which was amazing– it’s incredibly unusual to find even single cans of Dr. Pepper in Australia, let alone anything more!  We surmised that someone had placed a special order for the pack, and never came to pick it up.  I suppose the store is probably lucky that we came along for it, otherwise who knows how long it would have ended up sitting around! 

    The cooking of fajitas and tacos went pretty much according to plan.  The tacos ended up being pretty close to San Diego authentic, while the fajita spice was not quite right but still ended up being decent.  Both meals were a nice change from the fare we’d had on the ship and in Australia. (Kristin Interjection: “The tacos turned out EXACTLY right, and were DELICIOUS!”)     

    Where things took a turn somewhat for the worse was when making French Toast.  A few days earlier we had purchased a canola oil spread to use on sandwiches.  While it turned out to be terrible for that role, we thought we could at least use it to grease cooking pans, since it shared the same base as cooking oil.  With that in mind, Kristin began cooking away, using several pots and pans.             

    Well, about 30 minutes into the French toast production, I happened to look up and discovered in alarm that the entire cabin was filled with a dark haze!  Even worse, the ground had begun to get oddly slippery from the vaporized canola oil filtering out of the air!  All cooking was immediately stopped, and we threw open all of the windows so the smoke would dissipate.  I was a bit concerned that we might have caused an extensive problem for ourselves.  Fortunately, the bedrooms and bathroom were unaffected, and a quick cleaning of the horizontal surfaces within the main room and kitchen seemed to solve things. 

    The excitement of the day wasn’t quite over yet.  While in the shower, I looked up at the bathroom wall and was horrified to catch sight of a horrendous spider!  The spider’s body was about the size of a quarter, and its overall circumference including its legs was just smaller than the palm of my hand!  We managed to catch it by having Kristin hold up a pan, while I blew on it so that it fell off the wall.  (Kristin Interjection: “D didn’t warn me that he was going to blow on the spider. He just did it and it went flying, and I was screaming, and it was pure luck that it fell right into the pot!”)  When we released it outside, the spider actually crawled away sideways like a crab!   

    Overall that was definitely an eerie experience, and it prompted us to spend the next 20 minutes searching around the cabin for any other worrisome beasts.  Nothing else ominous turned up, although I did find a large millipede in my bedroom that had apparently died some time ago (its empty exoskeleton fell apart upon touch), as well as a lost woman’s earring!  (Kristin Interjection: “I was so freaked out by the experience that I hallucinated that D snuck up and poked me in the side. I jumped and screamed and said, “DAVIN!” and he said, “What?” from all the way on the other side of the room!”)