Nearby to Undara is Kalkani Crater, an extinct volcano crater, it’s about 15km away. It was too hot to think about walking up there yesterday, and given our tour today is at 10:30 we can sneak in a side trip this morning. We are there at 8am, but it is already pretty warm.
It is a pretty easy walk up to the top of the crater rim, you can walk all the way around the rim, but Liam’s legs are hurting and we’re not sure how much walking we will need to do on the lava tube trip. The photos are not that good.
Caitlin’s had enough
Back to the camp and move the van to the day parking area, which is conveniently located absolutely nowhere near the where the tour starts from.
The tour starts with about a 15min drive into the national park, the guide is really good, and the talk all sounds original.
We visit 3 sections of lava tubes, and I have to say they are pretty amazing. These tube are meant to be the largest diameter tubes in the world and given some of them are over 20mtr wide I can see why.
It is noticeably much cooler in the tubes and when we pop out just over an hour later it is a bit of a shock to get back out into the hot weather.
We start driving west, with an aim to get somewhere around Georgetown. We stop briefly at the township of Mt Surprise (no, I’ve got no idea), the day is warming up and the car has it at 35°, as we head to Georgetown it is hits 37.
It’s not long after leaving Mt Surpise that we get a surprise, single lane roads. I knew they were coming but expected them to be a few days away from here. At first they are pretty unnerving. I guess a bit like the single lane bridges in NZ. There is so little traffic on these roads that it’s not a huge issue. There does seem to be a size pecking order, the larger you are the better rights you have to the centre. We see some road trains and we pull over to the dirt, but in fairness a number of cars have pull over to the dirt so we can stay on what little tar there is.
We end up at a freecamp just outside Georgetown called Cumberland Dam. It’s a dammed creek/wetlands with loads of birdlife. We find a shady spot to park the van, just as well as the car has just recorded 38° and its nearly 5pm. We setup a campfire, purely for the entertainment, obviously not for heating.
A walk around the dam to look at the birds. I’ve gone a different way and when I return I get to see this goanna in the path that Liam is just about to walk onto. Not sure what the outcome had been if these two had meet on the track.
The night sky is so clear, but given there is no moon or other light, it is astonishing how bright it is. You’d swear there was some factory complex just over each horizon.
It’s a hot night and doesn’t really cool off, and it is hotter in the van than out. We have some fans in the van and they help take the edge off.
