Undara Lava Tubes

This weekend we went for our first overnight trip away from Cairns. We've done a fair few activities in and around the city so now we need to venture out a little farther. We hopped into the Jeep and went for a ride to the Undara Lava Tubes. To get there we headed south of the city to the Gillies Range. This is a pretty exciting road up the mountain range. Lots of switch back, a bikers dream. The climb takes a little while because the speed limit is 40kph and there aren't any guard rails. Eek.

Once you make to the top you reach the Tablelands. It doesn't take a very long time for the humid rainforest to give way to beautiful green rolling pasture land. It was almost surreal how green the greens were. This is the part of world around here where they grow all the tasty fruits and veggies. There are lots of little towns along the way, one of the best spots was just a round a corner where a bunch of windmills popped up. It was probably the most comfortable temperature we've felt in awhile. Not that I don't love the heat, but it was pretty refreshing up here. It also felt a lot like home, agriculture and all. It actually felt like Alberta, but that's close enough to home. Here's a picture of Tara playing with one of the windmills.

We kept traveling. Soon after this the lush fertile landscape gave way to roasting hot heat (the A/C in the Jeep isn't working). We watched the temp climb up to 34. We though this was hot until we drove back on Sunday when it it got up to 36. Anyhow, we cruised into scrub. It's not the kind of outback where there is nothing at all but red dirt. The dirt is red, but it's got grasses and tall trees. It definitely was vast though. On our way back we went for a short 1hr walk up this volcano crater and around the rim. Here's an example of the view from up top.

There's not a lot out there, except hotness. Anyhow, the reason we made this whole trip. You see in that picture above the line of darker green trees. There's a lava tube there. These lava tubes were formed when volcanos back in the day were slowly spewing lava. This area is all gradually sloping towards the west, so when a big shield volcano was slowly releasing lava it all ran downhill to the west. Then the top of the lava flow would harden, but the hot lava would keep flowing in the middle. Eventually the lava stopped coming out of the volcano and the rest of it drained out of the tubes. Now what's left is huge caves were the lava used to flow. That dark green in the bush is where the tubes have collapsed. They hold more water down there and it's a lot colder. Plus the rock walls don't let the bush fires get in. That's why it's green.

So there are tubes that aren't collapsed. That's what we got to go in. Like this.

This one made for nice picture. There were a few that you got to walk a fair ways in. Far enough in that it is pitch dark. It's was pretty amazing. I was half expecting this place to be a bit of a disappointment, but it proved me wrong. It was amazing. It makes the recommend list.

Then after all of this we went home. Back to work tomorrow. Next weekend is the AECOM Christmas party. Merry Christmas everyone. Talk soon.

Nick