Located in the Newnes National Park. This town was from the early 1900's
The old Newnes Hotel
Our camp surrounded by Kangaroos
Feeding one of five possums that came to visit one night.
The moment that this friendly little Possum came up and licked my phone screen..
Not so cute and cuddly..
Crossing a bridge on the hike to the tunnel
The entrance to the Tunnel 
After a 250m walk in the dark, checking out the glow worms, we came out the other side!
The opening of another huge cavern. None of my photos actually show you just how large it is!
The Main Street of the Jenolan Village
was a large scale oil-shale mining town. This was up until the 1930's when the mining operations were moved to Glen Davis and now all that remains of the town are the pub (which is currently being restored) and various crumbling ruins from the oil-shale processing plant.
Sunset over the hills
With many Wombats, Kangaroos, Possums and Ducks surrounding our free camp, I set about trying to hand feed the local wildlife...
(Ok so those of you who know me, know that this doesn't always go to plan....)
Feeding the Roos... No problem!
Feeding the Ducks... Even easier!
Feeding the Possums... Well... For once I didn't actually get bitten!
Feeding the wombats... Well... Let's just say that 14yrs ago I tried to feed a wombat.. And this wombat may have charged me and reared up on its hind legs to head butt me in the stomach.. Having been 14yrs since my last real wombat encounter I decided it was time to again get a little closer than a possibly saner person would..
Let's just say that this pretty much didn't work out for me once again.
A twig snapped under my foot when I was approx 2m from what I thought was a docile, lazy wombat. The wombat then, like before, charged me!
I tried my best to jump out the way but this wombat just grunted, put his head down, and proceeded to head straight for me!
Luckily all I recieved was a slight nudge to my leg and no rearing head butt! But what can I say?? Gary and the girls watched on in amusement and were in hysterics when I made it back to the safety of the car!
Wombats 2
Bree 0
Heading out for a drive one day, we made our way to an old Railway Tunnel that has been disused since the 1930's. The tunnel is known to be full of Glow Worms.
The drive to the tunnel was an adventure in itself!
We took a 'shortcut' from our camp along a winding 4x4 track before arriving back on the main road to the tunnel.
The road then followed the old railway track, and we had much fun driving through another old railway tunnel.
Driving through an old railway tunnel
Ella having some fun in the entry to the tunnel
After a few days spent exploring Newnes, we set of for our next destination..
Oberon!
Arriving in Oberon we set up in the local Showgrounds campsite for a few nights. We had heard that Oberon was a great place to go fossicking for Sapphires, so we soon set out to see if we too could find a few more to add to our growing collection!
Gary and Tori fossicking through some dug up rocks
Tori sorting/washing some rocks
Heading down into the caves
This cave was actually a tunnel that you can drive through! It was HUGE!
After digging around in the extremely hard dirt for a few hours, we managed to find a couple of small pieces of blue sapphire.
Unfortunately not as impressive as a few of our previous finds, we still had a great time trying anyway!
That night we headed to the local RSL club and managed to win a huge meat tray with a large roast lamb and 9 sausages on it! I was quite happy with this!!
We drove out to Jenolan Caves and took a tour to explore the Lucas Caves. Having seen quite a few caves before I was a little sceptical as to whether I would think it was impressive/worth the money, but I'm pleased to say that it was worth every cent!
Walking up, down and around many winding tunnels, we were in awe of the formations that had been created over 1000's of years.
A formation known as The Broken Column
This one is called The Bishop due to the Bishop shaped formation on top
There were huge caverns with roofs that reached atleast 4 stories above our heads, and areas not so high where we had to duck our heads to make our way through.
We learnt all about caving back in the 1800's when only torches were used to guide people deep into the caves. (Now that dos not even slightly interest me!! Arghhhh!!)
Next stop.... Canberra! Where we plan to visit Parliament House, The Mint, The various Museums and everything inbetween!
Xx
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