We caught a bus with our guide Garry and two Germans and travelled about 20 kilometers into what is now a National Park (it was once a cattle station).
The Lava tubes were amazing, made even more unbelieveable by being older than time itself.
They were formed more than 190 000 years ago when the Undara volcano erupted continuously for more than two decades. The result was the longest and widest lava tubes in the world, which stretch more than 160 kilometres.
Parts of the tube have collapsed along the way, but we were able to walk through several large tubes and see the different colours which have formed inside these true timepieces over thousands of years.
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| One of the lava tubes |
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| The kids inside the tubes |
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| Richard and the kids with a colourful part of the tube |
We returned back to the caravan to pack up and continue back along the Savannah Way.
The first town we passed through was Mt Suprise which is renowned for its gem stones and as having the most fertile soil in far north Queensland due to the copious amounts of lava that flowed across the region.
The next town was Georgetown where we stopped for a cuppa and then Croydon where we stopped to refill. There wasn't a lot to see other than the odd roadworks and a station cow or two crossing the road in what is the heart of station country.
Driving along you could see how a fire storm could tear through hundreds of hectares in a heartbeat fuelled by the dry grass and trees.
We we're hoping to spend the night at a free camp, just before Normanton but on arrival it was closed so we decided to continue through the town, stopping just to take this picture of another big barra...
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| A big barra, Normanton |
... before we continued onto Karumba another 100 kilometers down the road.
The drive into Karumba became even more sparse with the trees disappearing to become vast plains. We were amazed at seeing hundreds of brolgas grazing alongside herds of cattle and it seemed the closer we got to Karumba, the smaller the wallabies, although we've been told they are called Wallaroo's.
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| A pretty faced Walleroo |
Mark and his wife Fiona also have three kids and are also travelling around Oz, picking up work along the way.
We all dispersed for dinner before putting our kids down and regrouping for a chat before bed.
Friday the 5th of October and Richard and I were up early for our morning walk, at 7 o'clock it was already 30 degrees, it was going to be a warm one. By 10, the washing was on the line and the kids were all in the pool keeping cool with their new friends, Hannah, Harrison & Matthew.
Richard did some work on the computer while I pottered and did some cooking.
We decided to join the kids in the pool when the mercury hit around 36 degrees.
At lunchtime, Richard went down the road and brought some fresh prawns which we devoured way too quickly before we decided to go, as a family to put some crab nets in.
We all lathered ourselves within sunscreen and put the tinny in the water, I was on continuous croc watch... and on edge... in the heart of croc country.
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| Giddyup fisherman cowboy, Karumba |
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| The kids get ready to do some trawling and crabbing |
Richard took us through the Karumba port and into a creek system where there was constant evidence of our croc friends with their marks left behind on the river banks.
We continued down the river and before long, on a bank was the real thing... I saw it first and my panicked cries of "crrrroooooccccc" obviously scared it becaused it packed up camp and slid into the river.
Now I was really on edge and if I had a paper bag handy I think I would have been breathing very heavily into it, but I had to keep calm so I didn't scare the kids. (apparently I did a bad job of hiding my anxiety, so next time I will take a paper bag).
We continued down that blasted creek for what felt like an eternity, long enough to set up 8 mud crab nets and for the kids to trawl back out. All the while I was having visions of crocs sliding off banks and into our tinny etc etc....I was never more grateful than to leave that creek only to spot one of the massive prehistoric creatures on the shore as we left the river mouth...
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| The mother of all crocs, lies on a Karumba bank |
It was huge!!! We arrived back at the boat ramp safe and sound and went back to the caravan for a quick shower and to the tavern to watch a famous Karumba sunset and to have a stiff drink which I was well and truly in need of by then.
It was a stunning parade, compliments of mother nature and once the sun touches the horizon, it's over in the blink of an eye....
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| Going.... |
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| going..... |
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| .....gone |
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| The kids watching a Karumba sunset |
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| A more relaxed me, after sunset |
After watching the sunset we all had dinner. Able to tick another iconic Australian destination off our list. Troy Cassar-Daley, my favourite Australian country music singer, speaks of a Karumba sunset in one of his songs "Sing About This Country"...so it was on my Aussie list of things to do.
The kids were kept occupied having crazy crab races up palm trees...
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| Crazy crab racing, up a tree, poor fit little creatures |
...while Richard and I chatted to a couple from Victoria who are staying in our caravan park.
We all walked home, the kids with hands full of crazy crabs, after a big beautiful north-west queensland day of swimming, sunshine, (croc) stress and sunsets.
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