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
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