Cairns to Undara to Croydon

21/7/2015

Cairns to Undara

After stocking up organic groceries, butter and fuel I went to Blackbird Espresso to update the blog, enjoy some great flat whites and buy some beans for the Aeropress. As I'm heading into the outback again, I need to be prepared.

The drive from the coast climbing the winding road to the Atherton Tablelands was nice but rather slow. There are many tight corners to turn and a general 60 kmh speed limit for probably close to 20 kms.

I stopped at the impressive curtain fig tree – unbelievable what nature brought about there.

As this area is rainforest, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find wet weather when I visited Milla Milla falls. Again, like 9 years ago when Markus and I visited this wonderful waterfall, where you can swim underneath it if you don't mind cool water, it was raining. The ground leading to the waterfall was very wet and slippery and I slipped and fell into the mud, making my whole right side and my camera muddy. Seems like everything is still in working order though.

I drove through Ravenshoe, Queensland highest town, at 930m altitude.

It is quite remarkable how quickly the vegetation changes from first rain forest to normal forest and then dry outback. Finally back in the bush, with plenty of red dirt, dried grass and the feeling of remoteness. I missed it!

The next stop was at Innot hot springs. There are some thermal springs in this area and in a local caravan park, they have 6 pools with different temperatures that you can swim in. I didn't stay at the park but instead decided to pay the $10 entry to the pools as I planned to stay about 100km further in a bush camp. The hot water was nice and after two 10 minute spa sessions, I left to make sure I got to my camp before dusk.

Tonight I'm staying at Undara – Australia's Accessible Outback Experience. Beautiful scenery, I just arrived before sunset and climbed the rocks next to my camp site to take some photos. Looks like an interesting place and I got a nice campsite in the bush. Tomorrow morning, I'm going on the Lava Tube tour, which is the main feature at this place. Unfortunately there is little to no phone coverage here, so the blog will have to wait for another day or two.

While cooking in the camp kitchen, I met a young couple from Canada and had a nice chat with them. Good to see some other young people in a bush camp site!

When going to the amenities block after dark, I noticed some tiny sparkling dots on the trail when my headlamp lightened the area. At closer inspection, it actually were the eyes of spiders, that were out hunting. I saw literally hundreds of them – luckily I don't have a 'spider radar' that sends my blood pressure up like some other people (potential readers of my blog!) and am okay with having them around, as long as they stay outside. ;-)

Distance traveled: 290km

22/7/2015 Undara to Croyden

The Blackbird coffee blend smells sensationally and went down very nicely. While I was having breakfast I cleaned the 5D, enjoyed the warming sun, watched and photographed quite a bit of wildlife. Swamp wallabies came really closed, the magpies were interested in my breakfast too and the two Kookaburras were posing on a tree right next to the camp kitchen. Awesome way to have a relaxed breakfast and wake up.

Views from the camp kitchen

It was really interested in my breakfast

The owners of this place, the Collins family, who own this station since 1862 are already the sixth generation from the originally settlers. They have brought in some old train wagons and converted them into a bar, restaurant, an information center and accommodation. Looks very cool.

Had to hand-wash my softshell jacket and the shorts that I wore yesterday when I slipped in the mud. They both looked horrible afterwards and are still stained a bit, even after a hand wash. My 'active' lava tubes tour started at 10:30 and involved a 2 hour guided adventure in these interesting, nature made tunnels.

In this area, there were about 160 volcanoes at some stage, with the last one to be active less than 10 000 years ago. These shield volcanoes erupted in a more flowing rather than explosive way. Quite interesting geologically, the bedrock here is massive, old rose granite. The newly deposited basalt, cooled down lava, has taken over most of the space, only some outcrops of the granite remain – almost like islands in the former lava streams. The combination of the different rocks makes for some nice scenes.

The lava tunnels are a lot bigger than what I imagined, some of them apparently had 10000 cubic meters of lava going through them per second, about 190 000 years ago. Doing the active tour, we were climbing down steep rocks, but a guide rope was always in place. We also saw some small, sleeping bats in one of the tunnels. Cool stuff.

A German traveler that takes 'Die Maus' everywhere and according to him she always gets into trouble...

Just to show the size of these tubes - the people near the exit look tiny!

A tiny little bat

Awesome 30 second exposure

After the tour I hit the road and drove through Georgetown all the way to Croydon. Partially it was a single lane road – so when ever anybody approaches, you have to drive half way into the dirt next to the road. Quite an adrenaline spike when road trains come your way and only leave you a few centimeters between their truck and your mirror, kicking up lots of dirt and stones.

A local grocer - I bought some fresh vegetables there, but am happy that I stocked up in Cairns!

Shooting along with 100 kmh

The bush just offers amazing photo opportunities

In Croydon I visited the local lake and took some photos before sitting down in the camp kitchen (nicely lit!) and enjoying some of yesterdays beef curry.

The next awesome shopping adventure ;-)

Camp kitchen, all for myself and enough time for a long exposure

It was quite dry and hot here today, over 30 degrees in the afternoon, quite a welcome change! Keep in mind that this is winter and dry season. I don't even want to know how summer feels like here! The weather at the east coast is still wet and cold – I'm extremely happy with the temperatures up here.

Distance traveled: 305 km