Tour Australia

Today we packed up and got organised to head west from Cairns. We left Cairns late morning and traveled south before turning west over the mountain range. We joined up with the Savannah Way and made our way to Millstream Falls.

Millstream Falls claims that it is the widest single drop waterfall in Australia. Unfortunately it is a little hard to get a grasp of how big or wide the falls are as the walk takes you down a formed path to a viewing platform which is a fair distance from the falls. The weather was turning a bit and we were getting a bit of rain so we didn’t stay long.

From Millstream Falls we continued along the Savannah Way heading west. We stopped in briefly at Innot Hot Springs for a look and feel the water. It is a bit under whelming and to appreciate the hot spring you really need to dig yourself a little bath in the sand and sit in the water. As it was getting later than we had anticipated, we didn’t do this and continued our trek west.

We arrived at the Undara Experience, a privately owned tour operator and accomodation provider just outside the Undara Lava Tubes National Park as there is no camping in the National Park, and checked in to the caravan park where we stayed the night.

The following day we found out that we should have pre-booked our Undara Lava Tube tour as there were next to no spaces available. We were lucky enough to get in to the 1pm tour. Unfortunately it was pouring rain so we were not able to go on any of the walks or enjoy anything else at the National Park.

The tour was interesting and our guide was friendly, making the occasional joke. We made our way by bus to the lava tubes and descended into the first lava tube. It was massive and we were very impressed.

The next lava tube we went to was not far on foot. Firstly you make your way down through the “Arch” which is part of the lava tube but both sides have collapsed so there is only an arch left and the we turned left down into the tube. This one was much longer and almost pitch black right at the end.

The tour lasted 2 hours and we had a good time. After arriving back at the Undara Experience and hearing that the rain was set in for a few more days we decided we were going to leave to try and push on for better weather.

Unfortunately due to the rain there were some road closures so to get to Porcupine Gorge we had to detour through Charters Tours. It took us an extra day to reach Porcupine Gorge but we were happy to be there with such good weather.

On our way out however, we saw a Mazda 2 in an awkward position just off the side of the road. We slowed as we passed and realised that it was bogged and the owner of the vehicle was still inside. We came to a stop and pulled off the road. It was definitely soft. I had a chat to the owner and decided I would turn around and winch him backwards. I reversed the caravan perpendicular to the road so we could turn around. It sank around 15cm into the soil but after putting the Jeep into low range we turned around and parked behind the Mazda 2. We winched him backwards with ease and set him on his way. We returned to the road and made it out to Porcupine Gorge just before dark.