Undara to Croydon, Queensland
In the morning, we do the wonderful (and expensive) Undara Lava Tubes, then drive west through old mining towns of the Gulf, ending up in Croydon at sunset.
During the night, the southeast winds really kicked up, making for a chilly morning--maybe 10C. We got dressed and headed up to reception for our half day tour at Undara.
Undara lava tubes are some massive lava tubes that were created 190,000 years ago when a large shield volcano oozed out masses of fast flowing lava. The landscape around the area was previously granitic and with a slight gradient towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the amount of lava spewed was immense enough to create a lava flow 160km (100 miles) long--the estimates are that 23 cubic kilometers of lava was spewed!
For our half day tour, we went out to Wind Tunnel complex, a lava tube, and walked through three sections. The first was called "Misplaced Arch", and was a 7or 8 meter tall archway, maybe 20m wide, and open at both ends. It was much larger the lava tubes at Lava Beds National Monument in northern California--Chris and I had visited those a few years ago, and were expecting similar ones. These were much larger. At the entrance to this first cave, I spotted a Mareeba rock wallaby, which scampered underneath the boulders when it saw our tour group approach.
Climbing out of the cave, we walked a few hundred meters down the track to the second cave. This was even bigger than that first one, maybe 12 to 15 meters tall, and 50 meters long, and open on both ends. Like the first, this had curious black and red and gray stains on the walls--if you squint, you can pretend they're Aboriginal art works.
The last cave was the most impressive. We entered through one hole, rounded a corner, then were in another tube--very tall, maybe 10 meters, and very dark, stretching off to the distance. We looked at the walls, then walked about 200 meters to another opening, and came out. Chris also saw his first cane toads--they were in the mud holes on the bottom of the lava tube's floor. They were mighty gross looking.
We then had morning tea, drove to a lookout, and back to the lodge. It was noon. It was a good morning... if it wasn't for the price.
Yes, the price. That 3 1/2 hour tour cost us A$63 each (US$36 at current exchange rates). The guiding was excellent, and the caves were neat, but frankly we could have read a national parks info board for ten minutes, walked through the caves in another 45 minutes, and seen just as much. We were quite bored during most of the tour, as we waited for the other twenty people in the group to pick their way through the rocks and take pictures. It cheesed us off a bit that even though the tubes are national parkland, you can't go into them without a guide--and Savannah Guides holds the lone concession. At least we didn't sign up for the full day, that would have set us back A$93 each (US$53). These prices are outlandish--they're dearer than any amusement park in Australia by far, and even more expensive than a full day ticket to Disneyland. Grrr.
Our guide told us the whole story: in 1992, National Parks had come in and taken over the station in an eminent domain proceeding, gazetting it as a national park. The owner, though, cut himself a deal rather than fight: he negotiated a 10 year monopoly on tour guiding and access to the lava tubes. That's why the prices are so high... for instance, had we stayed at the lodge, we'd pay A$246, including dinner, bed, and breakfast. Yeeikes! The Undara Lava Lodge or Volcanic Experience or whatever they've branded it has good caves, but you'll pay through the nose for it!
After lunch, a tour around mining towns
We headed west, and on the recommendation of the Lonely Planet Queensland book, took a detour to the mining towns of Einasleigh and Forsayth. Ah, hm. What they called 'an interesting slow detour' was nothing more than an hour detour through some small towns where they once had a mining industry. They weren't that interesting, and it was 160km on dirt roads. Hm.
We pulled into Georgetown, and thought we were going to stay the night, but both campgrounds were packed. Bloody Queensland school holidays. It was getting a bit late, 4:00pm, and though we're a bit loathe to drive around sunset --kangaroos and cattle wander on the roads--we pushed on to Croydon, which has a council-run caravan park that Lonely Planet describes as "small and bleak, though tempered by a few trees." It wasn't. It was grassy with many trees, and an excellent toilet and shower block. For a publication that's supposed to be accurate and up-to-date (our edition was published in March 2002, all of three months ago), there have been some annoying inaccuracies. Oh, and since I'm on a rant today :-), I'll also say that Lonely Planet's Queensland guidebook invariably describes country towns and 'interesting' with 'interesting places' and 'interesting culture.' Well, everywhere except the Croydon caravan park.
We passed many qantases on the side of the road to Croydon, just waiting to hop in front of the car... some eastern gray kangaroos, some wallaroos, some wallabies. I commented to Chris about how the wildlife was much more abundant up here, and then remembered from the cool LED map of Australia in Canberra's National Museum that foxes don't occur this far north. Interesting. I bet feral cats do, though, as I confirmed the next day when we saw one on the outskirts of Croydon. Just one more data point for my hypothesis that feral cats do a lot less damage to wildlife than foxes.
Weird Wildlife Sighting
Oh, quite a bit. Two more bustards (a bird) strutting on the road like a roadrunner. Flocks of galahs--they're quite common now in this drier country. And black cockatoos with a bit of red under their tale (have to look that one up). And of course, the Mareeba rock wallaby.
Also the bottle trees at the caves were cool... once again.