Undara - Croydon

Lava Tubes

We had to be at reception at 8am where we met our tour guide Tim, and jumped on the mini bus to drive out to the lava tube site. The volcanic lava tubes were formed around 190,000 years ago following an extended eruption of a single shield volcano. This massive eruption caused lava to drain towards the sea and while the surface of the lava cooled and hardened, hot lava continued to race through the centre of the flows, eventually leaving enormous basalt tubes. The tour was quite interesting and involved scrambling over the rocks through the massive caves - Cooper and Caitlin did well and seemed to enjoy it. Back at the campsite we finished packing up and collected our washing before heading out to Kalkani Crater on the way out. We walked to the rim of the crater for views over the surrounding area and a number of other volcanoes. We decided against doing the walk right around the rim because we couldn't cope with anymore of Cooper's whinging. I have got to tell you it is hot though - the last couple of days it has increased by about 10 degrees. We checked the weather stats on the phone and it said 36 and only 12 at home! Back driving along the Savannah Way the next stop was Mt Surprise where Caitlin caught on to the fact that there were gem stones to be had! We found the "Gem Den" and bought a bucket of wash to sieve for Topaz. Caitlin & Cooper both found a couple of decent rocks but Cooper had a melt down when he lost his as he was running back to show me. On the road again we kept going through Georgetown and decided to stop in Croydon when it was nearing 5pm (about 300km) We had certainly left the Wet Tropics now - it was hot and dusty and we were in Road Train country. The roads to here were generally pretty good. We were surprised to find some grass at the Croyden van park and also a lovely pool. The kids had a swim and a play at the park before dinner.