We saw the mountains on saturday

From a photography perspective, comparing the last week to today reveals an important fact: we are staying in the wrong part of Australia.




To be more clear, let me say this with the utmost sincerity: this place is gorgeous. It is a photographer's dream, provided that he or she uses a weather-proofed camera (thank you Pentax). I'm downloading some 200 photos right now, all taken today, and I'm fairly sure that the quality ones will span several blog posts.





So let me tell you where we've been. The rugby game last night that most of my coworkers went to (and the Sydney night-life afterward) seems to have worn Skip out, so instead of joining us on a nature trip this morning he handed us the keys to the rental car. Driving on the left is not for the faint-hearted, whether you're the passenger or the driver. Roundabouts offer the most confusion, right turns seem to require a conscious thought every time, and there is a clear tendency to drift to the left. Perhaps the most annoying inversion is the turn-signal knob: you can tell when Americans will turn because their wiper blades will start whipping back and forth furiously.



I am having a hard time figuring out whether the highway system in this part of the country is necessitated by the terrain or just hampered by lack of budget. We started out on a proper motorway (freeways are called that here) that ended too soon: the majority of the "great western highway" curved around the mountains through small towns with frequent stop lights and school zones- not exactly the pinnacle of rapid transportation. It took nearly 3 hours to get from Sydney to the caves, including a nailbitingly slim and winding mountain cliff road that is actually closed in one direction in the morning to help prevent accidents. Add the mist and the unfamiliarity with left-lane driving and you can imagine how relieved we were to shift that Haundai into park.



The parking lot however was situated half-way up a small mountain, and the hike down to the main house was about five minutes. It was drizzling the whole time- the clean, wet air and excellent views were very refreshing.









When we got down we ate some lunch and bought tickets to tour one of the dozen or so interconnected caves.







The caves themselves are full of crystal stalagmites formed by minerals leeched and deposited by water.











The discoverer of the caves was an early 19th century aussie named James Whalan, a shepherd and gutsy amateur spelunker. With the help of his mates, some rope, and chicken wire, he did quite a bit of exploration. He was intially prompted to enter the caves when his hat fell down a large hole: Indiana Jones style, he felt unable to leave without it, and so the adventuring began. Later one of his decidedly more amateur friends found it difficult to avoid the same hole: luckily he was also retrieved, with only a few shattered bones to show for it. The government took control of the caves in 1866, and they've been a tourist attraction pretty much ever since.

The creepiest part was definitely the underground river. The same river that they do boat tours on runs underneath the mountain, and surfaces briefly in one of the sections of the cave we visited. We had to take a steep staircase down to get to it.



Erin said she expected to hear Gollum skulking around down there.



We spent about an hour and a half underground, and by then we were pretty tired. The hike to the car we took a bit slower, so that despite the rain I could get a few more photographs. Naturally the climb back up was much tougher than the gallop down, so by the end we had quite a work out.









Erin drove us back (without incident), and allowed me to stop by the side of the road for several photo opportunities.







We saw a giant rainbow (also pictured: photographic proof of Erin driving).





I was very impressed at the beauty of the environment and its proximity to the city. It really did not take that long to get out into a very rustic location, and that was even past most of the normal Blue Mountains attractions. If you're ever in Sydney I suggest wholeheartedly that you get out to this part of the country.

For the photographers reading this, my main lens of the day was easily the DA 21mm Limited. It stayed on for most of the panoramas and other nature shots, and for about half of the shots in the cave. The FA 50mm f/1.4 came out for the other half of the cave shots and for some of the close-up flower shots when I realized that with the wind and overcast skies the Voigtlander 90mm couldn't quite get fast enough at f/3.5 to capture the shaky flowers. I stopped down the 21mm to f/11 or so for the panoramas, something I wouldn't have done until my dad borrowed the camera on our photowalk and showed me just how crispy the lens is at that aperture. The 50 I shot mostly wide open, or stopped down a bit if I wanted a bit more DOF (I dont't always like giving up the bokeh for that though).