Just kidding - I mean, echidna-ing!

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Last Saturday, was awesome! I now have a greater appreciation for Australia because today we left the city. IT felt so great to see mountains again! Charity, Katherine, Tomas, Allison, and I rented a car and drove to Jenolan Caves for a little caving adventure. It was so cool!

The morning started off a little off, because the car rental I had planned on fell through. But it’s all good, God had it covered. The very next car rental place I called said we could rent a car (day-of mind you) and get it for cheaper than we were planning! Thank you God! So we got the car and started driving to Jenolan caves. We drove across huge prairies and then over the Blue Mountains and arrived at Jenolan some 3 hours later. Four of us did the Plughole adventure caving. Tomas went on a cave tour. And we loved them both! The Plughole was pretty fun – not too crazy but exciting enough to definitely keep me entertained. Beyond that however, the caving was also a cultural experience. We caved with a French family – and when I say French, I mean they had to be visiting from France – the mom was the only one who spoke understandable English! And we also caved with a Czech girl. The French and the Czech hadn’t really done caving before – or at least that’s what I observed. But it was fun! And it was pretty cool to listen to the family talk in French. So yeah, it was fun. There was also an Aussie guy who thankfully took pictures of us in the cave, because we didn’t bring our cameras. He also told us of this spot where you can see kangaroos.

After we finished, we met back up with Tomas and explored the mountains around Jenolan. While walking around we saw the coolest little creature – an echidna. Echidnas are one of 3 remaining monotremes, which means they are mammals that lay eggs. Then we saw a kookaburra! After that, we ventured to the kangaroo place the Aussie told us about … and we saw about 10 kangaroos! AND we got to walk right up to them! But if you get within about 10 feet radius of them, they bounce away. (There is a slight possibility that I purposefully invaded one kangaroo’s bubble just to see him bounce away.) After that, we headed home having completed a wonderful day! My Australian experience would not have been the same if I had not seen kangaroos in the wild!