Welcome to the Undara lava tubes.
Come on down, it's a little
dark, and quiet but you'll get used to it. Stay on the path and
watch your step. If you should become disorientated you can
press the back button. |
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Chris
booked our accommodation and day tour as we drove from Carnarvon
Gorge to Undara. After staying in a cold small tent and driving
1100K - a soft bed was a good thing. I am not a fan of resorts but
was impressed with Lava lodge. We didn't want five star service
just access to the tubes. We stayed in a "cabin" which
was very basic, they were approx 3 Mtr cubes with two beds, power
and a fan no fridge. There was a nice outdoor communal BBQ
area which we had to ourselves because only two or three of the
twelve cabins were occupied. We arrived after closing time and the
staff were very helpful in provided after-hours key pickup. There
are a range of accommodation options from posh to camping. At a
bit over $16 per head the cabin was good value. |
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The
park was a cattle property and the owner (Stan Colins) had the
sense to switch from cattle to tube tours and has done a good job
of creating the operation unlike some other resort owners
in Queensland. The day tour was $93 and well worth it. Morning
tea, lunch and afternoon tea are provided. The tourists on our
trip tended to be middle aged and older with a few
exceptions. No great fitness is needed but there are a few ladders
to climb and rocks to scramble over. In the morning we had a mix
of full and half day tourists so the bus was full about 20
people. In the afternoon we only had seven or so. |
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Here
Chris is climbing down the ladder into our first tube while
holding a standard issue torch I brought my own which was
somewhat more reliable. The first few tubes didn't require a torch
but we needed them before returning to the bus. This small tube
doubled as a classroom with Val showing some posters, maps and
satellite images of the tube system. She also told us about a
self-guided walk around a crater rim some 12K from the lodge. We
did this the next day and its worth doing to get a better view of
the surrounding country side. |
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Aboriginal
artifacts are rare, however this tube had a few. Visitors are
expected to stay within defined walking tracks to preserve as much
of the floor as possible. In some tubes the silt is deep and may
contain objects of archeological value. The floor may continue to
deepen over time with a tourist layer currently forming. Further
archeologists may carefully note 2 lines of stones buried in this
layer. Hopefully they won't find cigarette butts and chips
packets. |
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The walls are quite different to other caves I've visited. The white is calcite but walls are volcanic rock not limestone or sandstone. The calcite forms cave coral but no stalagmites or stalagtites. Instead of limestone formations there are distinct lava formations sags and dribbles and lavaicles. There are domes and bowls formed by eddy currents in the lava. |
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The tube are not level, one would expect them to be (on average) descending or the lava would not have flowed. The floor is usually decomposed bat dropping and tends to be more level than the tube. So when a tube descends the ceiling eventually meets the floors as it has done here. Where the tube dips and rises again there may be enough gap to crawl through into the next section but this is for the experts. This is partly because the air after the restriction is likely to be foul and the explorers need breathing apparatus (it would be fun though). |
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Undara also caters for the less able-bodied visitors. This tube has wheel chair access including a solar powered lift for the chairs. The tube has no artificial lighting installed because introducing light will change the biology. The green in the photo is Algae which requires light to live, too much artificial light inside and you allow algae to grow where it doesn't belong. Another thing that doesn't belong is the cane toad, which is invading some of the tubes. |
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I found it hard to take in everything I was experiencing. I guess I imagined being in the tube like being inside a pipe - but it wasn't. There was much more to see and learn than I expected and it was hard to take it all in. I'd love to have this in my back yard so I could spend time alone in there. I'd also take some descent photos, taking happy snaps with a (cheap) handheld camera does not do it justice. |
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The lodge has a policy of not feeding the animals. They do provide water though and grow gardens and lawns. This attracts native animals such has these "pretty faced" wallabies. Wallabies were getting fairly boring after seeing so many from the car and bus but I had trouble rationing my film with these guys (pity I didn't have my digital camera then). This photo was taken just a few meters from our cabin window. Perhaps we should have stayed longer and explored some of some more of the sights outside the park. We've heard the bush poetry and other night time activities are good but we piked out. |
Lunch was served at this replica slab hut. Apart from the screws holding it together it looked pretty authentic. Lunch was a self serve smorgasbord affair with billy tea and all that. At lunch you get to know the other visitors and bit better. Our group was mostly Ozzie with one kiwi couple and one guy from Finland. I think most were motor touring as we were. |
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