Carols In The Caves.............

Each year I love to attend "Carols By Candlelight" somewhere. I always find such a sense of Christmas spirit there. At present the shops are full of people pushing and shoving to get their presents. I sometimes wonder if they ever really come to feel any Christmas spirit at all through commercialism. However, sitting back listening to the beautiful voices of those who sing Christmas carols; well one can certainly feel it there.
Last year we drove into the Domain in Sydney and sang merrily along with 10,000 other people.

The pine forrests

This year J and I drove up to Jenolan Caves up in the Blue Mountains. The drive there is lovely as it weaves up through the enormous pine forrests and the mountainsides of the Blue Mountains. At this time of year the wild flowers are still in full bloom and daisies bloomed along the roadside for many kms. As we entered Jenolan Caves I was in awe of the beauty.

The Carols were held under the Grand Arch which was a wonderful experience in itself.

The Grand Arch is very impressive as a cave ruin, big enough to host orchestra concerts and the road leads through this cavern up to Caves House which is where we stayed that night.

This year Peter Overton and Jessica Rowe hosted them and although I did not take many photos the memories will be etched in our hearts forever.

What a wonderful evening. The entertainers were all local people who were truely gifted singers and they literally scaled the heights to sing on rocky ledges, among the stalagnites and stalitites.

Natural mountain water gushing alonside the roads

Coloured lights reflected gently on the walls of the caves and the acoustics were amazing. I marveled at the numbers of grandparents attending with their grandchildren and loving every moment of it. Afterwards there was a party up at Caves House and the celebrations continued on until the wee hours of the morning.

J and I left at about 8:30am. As we drove out we passed Peter Overton and his 18 month old daughter, going for a walk to say good bye to pepole. He is such a lovely man, stopped and asked whether we enjoyed the night and how far we had to go home. Buses had arrived to begin taking people home to all parts of the state.
If ever you get the chance to go to "Carols In The Caves" I would highly recommend it because all proceeds go to the Oncology Unit at the Children's Hospital at Westmead.