What a great nights sleep , quiet as , no traffic noise , the only thing we heard was the birds this morning . We got up at 7:30 and had a very relaxed morning , we were booked in at 1pm at Undara for the tour . We didn’t really know what to do , unless you are going fossicking , Mt Surprise has few surprises . It is a lovely place to stay though .
Lyn read and I labelled photos , a job that should be done as soon after you take them as possible!!
We packed the ute and headed off , it was 59klms out to the resort , we left at 11:10 and were there by 11:45 . Had a look around , they have utilised old railway carriages for the bar & restaurant , workers and guest accommodation . They also have eco tents , tent sites and caravan sites available . It would be better to stay there if you are going to do any of the walking tracks available , and the sunset tours .
We had lunch and wandered up to where the tour starts , before jumping on the bus and getting driven down into the national park - access is restricted to tour operators only . There was a running commentary all the way down and back - the guide knows his routine well !!
The drive in took us through freshly burnt scrub , and you could see thousands of black basalt rocks everywhere . It even felt warm when we were walking in , anticipation was building as you got closer , then we paused near a bottle tree and the guide explained a bit more - you have savannah grassland on one side and rainforest on the other . Descending some steps into what appeared to be a dry creek bed , the guide explained again , this was a lava tube !! Where we were walking in , was a section of collapsed roof . A bit further on was the Archway - a section where the roof had fallen in on both sides , but the middle was still intact . You could see from the rock walls , different levels of rock - from lava flows at different times - the oldest lowest , next oldest next layer , and so on , till you get to the top - they have figured out there was 8 different eruptions that left these layers !!
Continuing on , we made our way into the next section , that disappeared into the darkness on the left and to the right past a large rock pile into another tube . To think we were walking through a lava tube , that over thousands of years has had lava flowing through it at 1200 degrees Celsius , was just amazing !!!
190,000 years ago the lava flowing from the Undara volcanoe eruption was approximately 1000 cubic metres a second - 23 cubic kilometres of it - it spread 90 klms to the north and 160klms to the northwest . It is the largest lava tube in the world .
The colours of the roof were a bit bizarre , and depended on the minerals etc leaching through the rock , there was a lot of calcium - hence the pale colours , then there was the iron oxides - red colours , there is also greys , & browns .This cavern was over 10m above us , and had layers of silt & dirt on the base , so would have been quite large .
The tubes go for 160 klms - some are blocked off , some have had roof collapses , others have a lack of oxygen - so are not visited , others are on private property .
We moved on to the Stephenson Cave , it is a lot larger , wider & higher than the previous one . The steps & boardwalk take you down further also - this one would be 30m wide and probably the same high , there are some bats there , only the ones that are hibernating - the others have left for better conditions at the moment . The guide pointed out where the lava flow was coming from - it was a large plug of rock at the end .
And that was it , our tour of the lava tubes was over - we have learnt a lot about the geology of the region and the volcanic nature of it - it explains all the black rocks in the savannah we have driven through up this end of Queensland , not to mention the fertile Atherton Tableland and surrounds .
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