Undara Experience, Queensland, Australia
Back on the road early as it was a good distance to Undara. Al was back in the driver’s seat. I’m usually a terrible passenger and always do all of the driving but I was enjoying just relaxing and taking pictures as the scenery unfolded around us.
The highlight of the trip to Undara National Park was seeing three wedge tailed eagles on the road. Each was snacking on roadkill. I only managed to get a picture of one. They are magnificent. We saw one that was close to black and two dark brown. We’d also seen one on the road between Georgetown and Forsayth.
We stopped at Cumberland Chimney wetlands again but there wasn’t much about this time. It was just too hot! Still 40.
Georgetown Roadhouse was our lunch stop for another great sanger. This time I went crazy and actually had a bacon and egg roll! It had half a pig on it!
On the road not far out of Georgetown you rise up onto a plateau of some sort. It's an amazing piece of landscape and a great road. Coming from the east you look down onto the green savannah from it. It’s something that was commented on when we were on the lava tubes tour.
The lowlight of the drive was a lowlife not slowing down as he approached at speed and flicked a stone that hit our windscreen. Our Cairns friends had said to make sure we had windscreen cover and they also gave us some patches in case we got chipped. As soon as we were hit we pulled over, cleaned the crack of dust and applied the patch. Avis was very surprised when we got back.
They said we don’t expect renters to do stuff like that. The 3cm crack didn't budge.
The temp kept dropping as we headed east towards Undara. Never have we been so excited to see the outside temp by only 34 degrees!
Before going to Undara we visited the Kalkani Crater. It’s accessed off the road into Undara. Super smooth gravel road that you could drive on in any car. It was a 2.5km walk up to and around the crater edge and of course down into it. Again plenty of birds. Great views of the surrounding landscape but also views of some large fires nearby. We didn’t know what direction Undara was in and of course we were concerned that the fires could be in that direction.
Undara https://www.undara.com.au/ was excellent - the place, the staff and the food. Undara is again in a National park that is inside a cattle station. This one has had the same family - the Collins - since they were given the grant to run cattle way back in 1862, and the Collins family are still 100% running the show.
When we were checking in we were advised that the railway carriages were not air conditioned and could be hot.
Undara is all about them but we were given the option of changing to the brand new homestead rooms.
We chose the carriage. I should have taken more notice when the guide on the tour was talking about them. I think there are 22. At the time they were found a decision had been made by the family to open up Undara but as a restricted access. Up to that time tours were coming up from Cairns and you just went down into the tubes. As well as restricted access the family saw it as a destination. The carriages were found in a siding up on the Tablelands. AN architect had already been engaged and he’d recommended clearing teh site and building modern ‘all amenities’ structures but the family wanted light touch/low impact and the carriages were perfect.
Each carriage is split into two halves and each half has a living room, bedroom and bathroom. They are connected by a series of paths and walkways that snake down from the central hub. A lot of the original timberwork has been retained, including the windows. The windows and shutters are the only issues we had with our room. We had to use sticks to hold them up. If they all fully opened the ventilation would be much better.
Even if it was under 35 it was still bloody hot so we headed for the pool and it was great. It even had entertainment - lorikeets playing in the waterfall and wallabies and kangaroos coming to visit.
The 'hub' of the resort has the reception, bar, shop and restaurant. It is kind of u-shaped with carriages around two (three?) sides and a huge metal roof that mimics the shape of the lava tubes. It is a great area. If only it was open later and they had music playing to keep people entertained in the evening.
We had a really good meal and drinks and meals are reasonably priced.
2025-05-23