UNDARA NATIONAL PARK

UNDARA NATIONAL PARK - Feb. 26-27

Up early and headed west into the Tablelands to Atherton and then further into the Savannah.  Our first stop was the PEANUT PLACE where after a few samples we decided on cashews, smoked and wasabi flavoured peanuts.  We swung past Lake Eacham, but decided because it was raining, we'd stop on our way home instead.  We stopped at MILLA MILLA FALLS, it was so beautiful you'd think it was phony or out of a Disney movie.  They even had a sign that if you went for a swim it would qualify as a polar bear swim!  We Canadians know that's not a real polar bear swim.  We went through Ravenshoe and stopped at the information centre before going to MILLSTREAM FALLS, Queensland's widest waterfalls.  We walked to the lookout and then had lunch where the kookaburras joined us.  We checked out the Innot Hot Springs for a possible stop on the way home.  We saw the wind farm, lots of termite mounds and coffee farms along the way.

We got to UNDARA NATIONAL PARK about 3:30, on the bitumen road the whole way.  We got our restored railway carriage room for the night and then went for a swim in the pool.  There were lots of kangaroos, wallabies and even wallaroos around.
Our first tour was the Sunset Tour at 6pm.  We took a small bus to a lookout to watch the sunset while drinking sparkling wine, and eating cheese and fruit.  We could see about a dozen dormant volcanoes from our vantage point.  We continued on and at dusk we went to the lava tubes to watch the hundreds of thousands of micro bats emerge from the dark lava tubes.  It was amazing having them fly right at you, but never touch you!  We entered Barker Cave and saw the night tiger pythons and brown tree snakes hanging from the trees to catch a bat for dinner.
We got back for a late supper of kangaroo, crocodile and volcanoes for dessert.

Sunday morning I woke up to the sunlight streaming in and the kookaburras laughing, so I got up.  I sat on our deck outside our railway carriage watching the wildlife all around me until everyone else got up.  We had breakfast buffet before our next tour at 8am.  This tour took us out to a few lava tubes and the Archway Explorer.  We learnt about the granite (red) and bathas (black) rocks in the park.  The undara volcano flowed everyday for 50 years over 190,000 years ago.  We drove past the 100 Mile Swamp and saw lots of different trees, including the Cardwell Ironwood which has a poisonous sap!  The last tube we went into was full of rain water, the board walk and railing were all under water....sooooo, we went for a swim!  The temperature was 24 degrees, what a unique experience, unbelievable!!!!!
We headed back, packed up and stopped at the gift store before leaving.  We drove to Kalkani Crater and took a self guided tour to it's rim.  We tried to throw the kids in at the top as a sacrifice!!  No luck!
On our drive back we stopped at LITTLE MILLSTREAMS FALLS and the WINDY HILL information sign on the wind farm.  Finally made it to LAKE EACHAM for our picnic and swim.  This is another crater but filled with beautiful clear warm water.  Stopped at the platypus view platform on our way back, but didn't have any luck, THIS time!


Milla Milla Falls



Disney land perfect



Wind Farm




Millstream Falls - widest waterfall in Qld

 

Kookaburra having lunch with us



Family of kangaroos, even a joey, outside our room



restored carriage room



our room for the night

 

Look who's watching us swim!



Sunset Tour



Night Tiger Phython eating a bat



Micro Bats coming at us



one of the lava tubes



Looking back out the lava tube



Cool wall designs and colouring



Archway



Darby following the railing



Gales swimming in the lava tubes!!



Our attempt at a sacrafice into the volcano




Little Millstream Falls

 

Lake Eacham - a crater lake