Photographs are a poor excuse...

Just got back from a trip to Jenolan Caves up at the Blue Mountains. Two days and a half of no contact with the outside world, no phones, no internet... there was just me (and family) and nature. Right now I'm sitting at my computer, looking over the photos I've taken... shot after shot of stones and rock and crystals and fossils, reliving.. no... trying, but failing to recapture the awe of seeing the caves for the first time. The crystal formations were just breathtaking. The cave rooms ranged from the minute to vast domes with high ceilings that rival the Sistine Chapel in its magnificence.
The photo below is sadly one of the best I've taken of the crystals in one of the caves of Jenolan. They are called the "crowned jewels", and rightly so. My photographs hardly do these wonders any justice.


On the second day of our trip i went to 3 different caves, seeing the light of day only briefly for lunch and then back again into worlds unknown. There are over 400 caves in Jenolan, and even now more and more are being discovered. Only a handful of these are sacrificed to the public to satisfy our petty curiosities. I saw underground lakes of the clearest water you wouldn't even know it was there until you look hard at it. The water was just crystal clear, unmoved, untouched... filtered by layer upon layer of earth above. I was looking at and could not help but stare at the fragile shoals and delicate helictites that might have been formed millions..or even billions of years ago.. noone really knows just how ancient these marvels are, and I just felt complete gratitude and thanks and awe wash over me like rain... to the maker of all these, for giving us still the chance to ponder at the unknown and the beautiful. Words and pictures... no camera can capture the beauty of these caves. Thankfully I have memories... but they fade in time and evolve... adding detail, losing grandeur. But there will always be the knowledge of having been there at this one point in time and taking it all in. So if you ever stop to breathe in garden air or bathe in a ray of sun, do say thanks.