Luke, a die hard expresso nut, loves a good coffee so a little visit to Coffee Works put an instant smile on his dial. What a find! We didn't have enough time to do the coffee tasting tour but a trip to the on site cafe was nearly as good and the kids thought so too with mini-milkshakes looking more like indulgent desserts. These guys have a beautiful gift shop and an amazing homemade chocolate shop, so there really is something for everyone regardless of whether coffee is your thing!
The further we meandered up into the hills, the greener it got and when we reached Ravenshoe, Queensland's highest town, the colours of the land are so vibrant we needed sunnies to take the edge off. Home to the Windy Hill wind farm, which generates enough electricity to power 3,500 homes with some to spare, the huge wind turbines pop up on the horizon and look perfectly at home amongst the green grassy cow paddocks and the cloud splattered blue sky.
The kids were perplexed by these huge spinning wind catchers and it made me realise how far we still have to go in incorporating renewable energy into our current world.
Back in the car and slowly we started to make our way further west, as our trip across the Savannah Way officially began. Luke and I had never driven this road before so it was all new to us too. Originally we were going to head back down the coast and turn westward at Townsville, but instead of backtracking, we thought we'd try the road less traveled and we're certainly glad we did!
The blink and you'll miss it town of Innot Hot Springs was our next stop. There's not much to the place but a caravan park which has capitalised on the naturally hot waters of the next door natural spring and has six pools of varying temperatures you can pay to swim in. Or like us, you can just head to the creek bed and dig yourself a hole and the warm water seeps up through the creek bed to meet you. But a sign might have been helpful with Luke nearly burning his foot off after sticking his toe in one of the pools! Yikes! The water was so hot you could cook your spaghetti in it!
Bassie found himself a nice little warm pool and took a lot of tempting and bribing on our part to get him out of his beautiful natural bathtub and back into the car!
After a big day in the car, we were over the moon to arrive at our destination - the beautiful Undara Experience and their catch phrase, 'Australia's Accessible Outback' was spot on. What a little slice of outback heaven. We set up camp and a fire and we could all take a big breath and relax after a busy day and get to bed, ready for our early morning tour of the Undara National Park's Lava Tubes!
We had heard from other travellers talk of visiting Undara and how special it was and we were so glad to go and see it for ourselves. Right in the heart of Gulf Savannah Country, the only way you can see the Lava Tubes is by joining one of the tours lead by the knowledgable Savannah Guides, specialists in this part of the country. We were off and at 'em early with our tour bus heading out at 8am, with us all still in shock frozen outback mode, after all three kids woke up during the night before crying because they were so cold! Coming from balmy Port Douglas, where summer pjs and a sheet were well and truly enough to get you through the night, we were truly unprepared for the 7 degree night out bush!
A bowl of warm porridge and a hunt for our winter woolies, and we jumped on the bus and headed off to the Undara National Park. Our guide told us all about the history of the area and how it was once a huge cattle station owned by the Collins family, who were the earliest white settlers in the area, farming the land since 1862. Eventually this family applied to develop a tourist facility to showcase the Lava Tubes and handed part of the land over to National Parks, to protect this natural phenomena for generations to come.
We walked down through two of the different Volcanic Lava Tubes, where rich volcanic basalt soils, covered in a sea of seasonal grasses, conceal the lava tube from above. The kids loved looking at the micro bats that have made the tubes their home and carefully stepped down over 'Larry' the huge Diamond Python that has lived under the bush walk steps for quite a while. Looking out from the dark inside the tubes was like looking through an ancient window to the Australian bush outside - a special place indeed!
A walk to the near-by Kalkani Crater rim was definitely worth the extra effort as well, with views out over the plain and surrounding areas.
But the lava tubes themselves aren't the only memorable thing about visiting this beautifully unique part of outback Queensland. The Undara experience itself is quite something. Along with a camp ground, a collection of restored train carriages make up the amazing accommodation. A terrific outdoor area which is designed to capture the limited rainwater the area gets is a great meeting place with top food on offer each night and more train carriages make up the amazing bar and are scattered around the dining area- the kids thought this was the best thing going!
With nightly entertainment by the fire like trivia and music and a pool to cool off when its too hot to bush walk, this place was pretty special. We also made the most of our campsite fire with jaffles for lunch and marshmellows for dessert each night!
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