It was almost snowing as we left Katoomba. It's July! Not far from the town were signs to the Jenolan Caves, somewhere I'd seen on a map, and I looked it up in the guidebook. They are apparently the best limestone caves in the Southern Hemisphere, so we went along for a tour. Somehow we ended up on two cave tours, and they were both excellent. The caves were gorgeous, and I think I even managed to get Mikey almost as excited about rocks as I am. Jenolan is famous for its cave decorations - stalagmites, stalactites, ribbons and shawls of calcium compounds coloured with iron. They were incredible and the lighting effects that the cave tour people had installed added to the glorious spectacle. Suitably awed, and very cold, we headed out to Parkes, our destination for the evening.

We drove around Parkes for a bit, hoping to find somewhere to stay and ended up in a cheap, nondescript motel. We had no way of cooking our own food, so we had excellent steaks in the motel restaurant, and then watched the last episodes of 24 (so now I don't have to sit through the whole thing!) and read for a bit.