Atherton Tablelands & Undara Lava Tubes

Only a few days were spent on the tablelands as the weather was not good.  Pity, there is a lot more I'd liked to have seen.  It was certainly different from most of the country I've been travelling through, hilly, green, very beautiful when the fog lifted.  Teaming up with another Grey Nomad (the first I've met through the Grey Nomads website), we visited Mareeba, stopping first at Coffee World, promising an indulgence of coffee and chocolate - like I could drive past that!  It was all it promised, endless coffee of an amazing varieties, ditto chocolate and also a coffee museum with a total array of artifacts past & present associated with coffee, it's preparation and drinking.  An amazing place-so absorbing I forgot to get any photos!  We then went to the rodeo grounds to look up another GN, to no avail as it turned out, BUT while looking I spotted a "Haircuts" sign in a caravan and got my first haircut in nearly three months!  In Katherine I could have made an appointment for a weeks hence, in Normanton I was told there are no barbers in the small towns, I'd just have to look bushy, which I did.  A good find.  Then deciding to return to Rocky Creek Campground, we passed an intriguing looking cemetery so stopped to have a look.  There were some remarkable raised graves and also some mausoleums, all very ornate - an interesting place to look around.  So, a great day and good to have some company - unfortunately no photos.

The next day I headed south through fog & winding roads off the tablelands, stopping briefly at a gas vent from an ancient volcano.  The hot gases formed underground blew up through the surface, creating a narrow vent going down 50m to the water's surface, to depths under water which haven't been determined (they got as far as 800m apparently but didn't reach the bottom).  I then continued to the  Undara Lava Tubes, where I spent two nights.  They were very interesting, a guided tour takes you into them, the guide giving a full explanation of the history, including the surrounding area.  The Undara National Park contains many old volcanoes which have spread lava over a vast area in the past.  The lava tubes are created when a lava flow cools on the outside but keeps flowing inside eventually emptying out, leaving the tube.  Nearby is 100 Mile Swamp, so named as it is 100 miles from the coast (this is QLD, remember). The swamp is about 8 km long and narrow, formed at the end of a lava flow which formed a dam.  A walking track along the edge is interesting, you are walking on granite ground but across the water you can see the edge of the old lava flow.  Quite a bit of wildlife can be observed on the walk, from a 15mm frog, many birds, 'roo and one - luckily not wild - huge cow sitting not far off the path contentedly chewing her cud. 

From here, the plan is continuing south through Charters Towers and on to Brisbane.