Undara Experience to Atherton Tablelands

Murphy's Law that the kids sleep in the day we have to be on tour by 8.00 - a bit of a scramble but we managed to be on Bus 4 with Chris, our hard case Aussie guide, in time. Undara Volcanic National Park was formed 190,000 years ago when the Undara volcano erupted and the lava flowed throughout the surronding landscape, following the routes of old river beds. Now there is an enormous basalt tube running underground, formed when the lava on the surface cooled while the hot lava continued to run underneath. It is fragmented by collapses, where patches of rainforest now grow. The 2 hour Archway Explorer tour took us to 3 sections of the lava tube - it was really spectacular, huge underground tunnels with amazing coloured basalt, some with natural calcium "drawings". We also learnt more about the region's history and vegetation.
On return to camp, we parked Pearl in the day visitor's park and cooled down in the pool, then had a quick lunch and hit the road for the return trip to the Atherton Tablelands. En route back, we nearly ran over a live Eastern Brown which was lightning quick in disappearing into the grass. Once back to the fertile green tablelands, we stopped in at the Mt Hypipamee National Park and did the short walk up to the crater. It is over 120m deep, 70m from the viewing platform to the algae-covered water, and because it is so enclosed, it felt very high! We then drove through Malanda to the Nerada Tea Plantation, Australia's largest tea plantation and
checked out how tea is harvested and made, whilst enjoying a Devonshire tea. From there Pearl navigated some very narrow windy roads through dairy country (and we stopped to see an olive python run over but still alive) to Yungaburra where we visited the 500 year old Curtain Fig, which is a strangler fig with 15m aerial roots hanging down. Camp for the night was at Kairi, in a park opposite the hotel.