Undarra Lava Tubes

March 15, 2010


We had an early start for bush breakfast where again we were the only ones there. This was a lot like our camping experiences except someone besides me was doing the cooking. Toast over the fire, coffee and tea from the Billie can and thieving Kookaburras laughing at us. They are particularly fond of sausage and take them right off the plate if you aren’t paying attention. Eight o’clock saw us mustered for another visit to the tubes with a ranger. This is the only way you can travel in the interior of the park as it is a sensitive environment. Along the way we saw: rose-breasted cockatoos (galas), black cockatoos, black wallabies, eastern kangaroos, pretty face wallabies and lots of magpies. The Tubes are huge, probably 80 to 100 meter s in diameter, however they are filled half way or more with sediment. They actually only flood as they say ‘twice every twenty years’ and last year was the time. By this they mean that in twenty years they get one with enough rainfall to fill the aquifers and raise the water table to the tube level. The following year regardless of the amount of rainfall the water levels stay high enough that some of the tubes are still flooded it is in this year that you can wade in and swim in cool clear water. Until this year the tubes hadn’t been swimmable since 1992. Some of the group wasn’t keen but we were right in the water and with only a headlamp headed in, what a great experience but a bit spooky.

Well we headed back to camp for a short bush walk, some bouldering which was fun and another massive lunch. Connor and Mary Rose both tried the Undara burger about three quartes of a pound of beef topped with onions, beets, a fried egg and all manner of salad. It barely fits in the mouth but somehow they managed it. After lunch it was time for the long trek back to Cairns, this time over a slightly longer route which took us along the coast south of Cairns. We stopped along the way at the spectacular Millaa Millaa waterfall and the Babinda Boulders, a set of massive rounded boulders and pot holes scoured by the raging waters of the Babinda River as it tumbles off the tablelands to the sea. All of these river estuaries are where the crocodile live and they have been recorded to top 8 meters long! The drive was spectacular, but after logging over 800 km in two days I was glad to return the car and have a break.