Australia 2004

All images Š Laurie & Kairen Wilson 2004

Port Douglas to Undara A long drive today across the Atherton Tablelands to the lava tubes at Undara. Little did we know that this was not going to be a good day!	The Granite Gorge at Mareeba was our first stop of the day. The gorge is of interest due to it's granite boulder formations and a colony of rock wallabies.
The river was in flood due to the rains that had swept through the area and the mixture of river crossings (steel bridges, tree trunks and 'rocks') were only just adequate.
It didn't take us long to find the rock wallabies, or was it the other way around?	they were cute but had sharp claws
this guy was a real bully	the mum with joey was cute and patient
even Laurie made some friends




Full of confidence Laurie crosses every obstacle in our path	The river had been much higher and brought a lot of debris and trees down with it
	Splosh! This was 10 seconds after Laurie had stood on a rock that decided to roll and in he went...unfortunately so did all his camera gear!
We eventually got out of the gorge after a lot of re-routing and scrambling over rocks, trying to get around where the path had disappeared. Chatting to the owner and sharing Lauries swimming experience he said that he thought he had told us not to go down to the bottom of the gorge as the path and bridges had been washed away. Needless to say neither of us recall this warning and it did explain why the few other visitors hadn't followed us. Ho hum!!!
Crystal Caves at Atherton This man made display of rock crystal was very good	Australia's largest piece of natural crystal

Dinner Falls at Mount Hypipamee
	Undara Lava Lodge We eventually reached out destination at the Lava Lodge, Undara. (this was a return trip of 300kms of single track road, on which we encountered over a dozen Road Trains - not fun driving!)
Laurie puts a brave face on the fact that his beloved camera is very wet and very dead.	Our room was a converted railway carriage, complete with Ladies loo for the bathroom.
Early next morning (we were woken up by the wild animals at 05.30) we were able to explore the lodge better. The enterprising owner had bought the carriages for Ł40 each in the early 1990's and had the foresight to see the tourist opportunity.
	He's still not a happy bunny!
The Arch lava tube. The tubes were formed during volcanic explosions fairly recently (in geological terms) a couple of hundred thousand years ago. The lava flow cooled over the top and formed a crust which then caused the lava to flow in tubes. This particular tube in Australia is around 200km long.	It is home to thousands of common crow butterflies and little micro bats
We stopped here for 'smoko' which is morning coffee break	the loo with a view (no door, just forest to look at)
Stevenson's lava tube
	Millaa Millaa Falls (Laurie has now appropriated Kairen's camera and does his best not to feel too upset about his camera)
Milla Milla Falls	This character was at Zillie Falls
Zillie Falls	Ellinjaa Falls
We completed our circuit of the Tablelands by ending up at Mission Beach which is an hour south of Cairns	These sand balls are created by little crabs and they are all over the beach. (this was the last photo taken with Kairen's camera before that too mysteriously packed up on us!) We are now down to our last camera and we are arguing over who takes the pictures. Kairen claims that it's all Laurie's fault... Laurie is wondering whether he should have climbed Ayers Rock and upset the spirits.
It wasn't me HONEST!	A really brave face

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