Lucas Cave Jenolan Blue Mountains Australia Pictures
Cathedral Cave used for Concerts, Weddings, Church Services
Lucas Cave (photo) is one of about a dozen cave tours offered at Jenolan in the Blue Mountains in Australia.
The Lucas Cave tour admission fee is about $28 per adult. Family passes and special caves passes are available.
Discovered in 1860, Lucas Cave is the largest cave at Jenolan, and can accommodate tour groups of up to 65 people.
At busy tourist times (New Years, school summer holidays), tours fill up fast, so book ahead to secure your spot.
Most tours operate during day time, though there are special tours at night.
Cathedral Formations at Lucas Cave at Jenolan Caves, Blue Mountains
From 1890 to 1948, says our guide, this part of the cave was used as the church in this area.
One formation forms the shape of a Pipe Organ.
Tour groups stop in a large chamber, where the guide activates the sound system to demonstrate the near perfect acoustics.
Concerts are held here on the third and fourth Saturday of each month.
Lucas Cave is 360 meters (1,200 ft) long, with 910 steps.
It is rated as Strenous, and it is in parts, especially on the long stairway leading up from the Grand Arch tunnel on the highway at Jenolan.
But it's fairly cool inside, and stairs going up are nicely balanced out with stairs going down.
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Limestone Formations at Lucas Cave, Jenolan Blue Mountains Australia 
The Lucas Cave tour takes you through multiple caverns before you retrace the path to go back to the entrance, which is also the exit.
Some passages are fairly narrow, to the point that several times, the cave walls touched both my shoulders.
A few times, I had to duck my head. The walkways, stairs and platforms are well secured, with good handrails and footings.
And, happily, Lucas Cave, and Orient Cave (the other cave I toured at Jenolan) are both 'clean'.
By clean, I mean that there are no bats to be seen, and no spiders and webs on the handrails like there are in the Show Caves in Borneo.
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Ribbon Shawl Formations at Lucas Cave, Jenolan Blue Mountains, Australia 
These limestone formations are called Ribbons or Shawls; I don't ever recall seeing this type of formation in any other cave, anywhere.
Apparently shawls or ribbons are formed when water seeps through the limestone, instead of dripping down.
Jenolan Caves are estimated to be 430 million years old, predating the vertebrates, so any fossils are of shelled sea creatures.
The lights in the Caves are turned on in each area or cavern when tour groups are present, then turned off as groups leave.
Overall, I enjoyed this tour, though the large group size made for slow going, and lots of background chatter made it hard to hear the guide.
After Lucas Cave, I had a box lunch then took the Orient Cave tour.
Related Blue Mountains, Australia pictures, Info: Sydney Australia;Blue Mountains tour bus route; Three Sisters, Echo Point; Jenolan Caves info, hotel; Leura Gardens Resort
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