Undara Volcanic NP

Lava tubes at Undara volcanic NP

Horseshoe bat

Cave spider

Undara volcano in the distance

On rim of Kalkani volcano

We had a great tour of three lava tubes this morning. We drove a short distance in a bus to the tubes, then went in and out of two tubes, and all the way through a third. The volcano which created the tubes is Mt Undara, a shield volcano, which is only one of twenty extinct volcanoes around here. When it erupted 190,000 years ago the lava flowed 160kms, a really really long way in world volcano terms, running through river beds and gullies, and as the cooler lava on top cooled it formed a basalt crust, while the rest of the lava finished flowing out and eroding down through the basalt from earlier eruptions from other volcanoes, forming the tubes. Apparently it also erupted for a really long time – we heard that because it was a shield volcano and the lava therefore oozed out rather than exploding (Scoria volcanoes), it just kept on erupting for over a hundred years, if not a couple of hundred years.

Now that the roof of some of the tubes has fallen through in some parts, you can go inside them, and in one of them we saw quite a few little horseshoe bats, a little frog and a cave spider. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay a second night – after I went back to try and pay for another night last night I was told that actually our campsite was booked, which was a bit frustrating as we’d asked when we’d checked in if we could think about staying another night and were told it would be fine. The campsite was two thirds full as well so I wish they could have moved the people booked into ours into another site but since we would have had to pack up to move anyway, we thought we may as well save the money and go and free camp (ok I was a bit annoyed and leaving on principal by then).

After the tour we went and did a short walk around the rim of the Kalkani volcano crater (a scoria volcano nearby) which was nice, great views of most of the other volcanoes in the area, and a nice place for lunch afterwards. Now we’re driving again, and will hopefully spend the next few days looking around Mareeba/Atherton tablelands.