Undarra offers all sorts of accommodation
options – old railway sleeping cars, spaceship-like safari tents, fancy cabins
and more. But we opted to set up our crusty dusty camper, pull out our cracked
plastic boxes and shake out the stinky sleeping bags. Whilst whipping up our Japanese pancakes at the camp kitchen we met numerous Europeans who had
come to this part of the word in order to see the upcoming solar eclipse. We
had been considering making it to the coast in time to see it, but listening to
these solar eclipse aficionados made us start to feel much more enthusiastic.
It seems such a risk for them though - to travel all the way from the Netherlands to see
an eclipse that might well be covered in clouds and unviewable.
In the morning I struck out on my own to explore some of the walking trails while the others worked on secret plans and birthday
surprises… I took a track called ‘bush walk’ which led me through the lovely
bush. I saw heaps of kangaroos, pretty faced wallabies, turkeys and other
birds, including a beautiful pair of brolgas. I noticed some hoof-prints in the
path and some fresh looking cow dung which made me feel slightly apprehensive
about meeting wild bulls. But I walked on and only turned around when I spied a
MASSIVE bull right next to the path. Very glad no-one witnessed my nervous
retreat.
That afternoon we took a tour to the lava
tubes. We listened to the guide with one ear each whilst monitoring the kids
who were both in crazy moods and were busy hyping up a previously quiet pair of
children belonging to another couple. Hence we both missed out on some vital
parts of the explanation about how these incredible lava tunnels were formed.
Needless to say there was lots of volcanoes a long time ago and somehow the lava
formed into tubes. The roofs of some of the tubes collapsed and so now we can
actually walk through some of the tunnels. Although we struggled to understand the science behind the
lava, we could appreciate the aesthetics - the rainforest surrounded the caves
and big tropical butterflies flickered in and out of the sunlight. We laughed
at the brush turkeys that wobbled over the path, pecking in the dirt for
insects. Zara cornered the ever-patient guide and let fly a stream of questions
– and as usual we danced the delicate dance of encouraging our children to be interested
and ask questions whilst ensuring they don’t dominate the entire tour. When we
thanked the guide at the end of the tour he explained that he actually liked interested
friendly children but didn’t appreciate bickering and whinging children. Phew.
We laughed when the children threw themselves on him when we said goodbye –
great big bear hugs fuelled by the instant love that they develop for tolerant
tour guides…
I was ordered to go to bed really early and
laughed to myself at the rustling going on in the tent. The sounds of balloons bursting
was followed by mad giggling and shushing. A few party poppers went off and a
string of streamers landed next to my head. Needless to say I awoke next
morning to a beautifully decorated tent. Zara was bursting out of her skin to
give me a present – a pair of earrings that we selected together at the
Katherine market some time ago (which amazingly she hadn’t lost)! Then we all
went across to a ‘bush breakfast’ where we cooked our toast over the fire and
ate baked beans, eggs, bacon etc from tin plates. It was actually pretty
similar to our breakfasts most mornings this year but still fun to have someone
else cook it! After breakfast we went back to the tent where I was duly served
with homemade lemonade and lemon slice – yum – and a couple of social
affairs/politics type magazines to keep me busy in the wee hours of the
morning! After the last party popper was popped, we packed up and drove to
Kalkani volcano for a walk around the rim. It was of course quite thrilling to
walk around the top of a volcano despite it having been dormant for many
thousands of years – you never know do you?
On we travelled towards the coast and suddenly
the landscape morphed into lush rolling hills, misty mountains and green
paddocks of fat cows. We were reaching the tablelands – a beautiful, tropical
area of waterfalls, dairy farms and cafes. It was strange to see so many curves
and so much green after so long in flat, rocky desert country. We drove through
drizzle but felt refreshed. We visited Miilla Miilla Falls – supposedly the
most photographed waterfalls in Australia. A windy rainforest walk took us
along a little stream and although we only ventured down it a few hundred
metres it was enough to allow two fat leeches to attach firmly to my feet. Bill
bravely flicked off the most tenacious of the two while I screeched like an idiot. Yuk.
The rain kept falling and again we treated
ourselves to a lovely overnighter called The Gables in a charming
little town called Yungaburra. It was incredibly cheap (only slightly more
than your average campsite!) and very comfy. Yungaburra has a number of
well-known restaurants and after a bit of umming and ahhing we settled on a
place called the Vienna Inn – a strange find in a little rural Queensland town.
But the meal was great – authentic and delicious Austrian food with big servings
and good Austrian beer to wash it all down with. We even had strudel for
dessert. A very memorable birthday.
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