Day 225 We been reading about this and seeing pictures for the last four months. The Undara Experience, did not disappoint. Our tour was at 10:30 in the morning and it was already blistering hot. I'm going to stop mentioning this as this is the case everyday lol. We met our tour guide in front of the lodge, signed in, took a head count and piled on a bus. The bus ride was no more than fifteen minutes along one of the dirt roads of the national park. When we got off the bus it was a quick two minute hike to a collapsed section of a tube and the start of our Experience! If it wasn't for these collapsed sections people might have never known the tubes were there. We apparently drove over two just the day before between the highway and the lodge. The Undara lava tubes are the worlds longest by a wide margin. At 160 km in length, it is 135 km longer than the next closest ones in Hawaii. This unique phenomenon happened partly due to the type of this volcano. Unlike the common volcanoes with the steep sides, this volcano was short and had very gradual slope. This meant the lava flowed very slowly and had time to harden on top. The lava then kept eating away the kilometer thick granite underneath and dropping down creating the tubes. Undara gushed lava for FIFTEEN years straight about 190,000 years ago!
The tour started with a quick climb down basalt rocks into the collapsed area. Then after a short info boost we headed for the opening of tube number one. Spectacular, an enormous tunnel carved by molten lava. The jagged edges ranged in colour from white to deep red as the iron oxide in the rocks rusted over time. We climbed down some more rocks and stood on the smooth dirt floor, looking around and taking it all in. The floor was about 5 meters thick, 200,000 years worth of dust and settlement We walked along a path market with stones to the other side where we climbed back out onto another collapsed section. A short rocky walk later and we were at the entrance to tube two, and by entrance I mean a hole in the rocks! One by one we climbed in the hole and down the rocks. It was really close to "caving". Once inside we seen that this tunnel came to a dead end, only it didn't. The lava tube actually dropped about sixteen meters but over time the dust has filled it in. Back we went climbing up the rocks and out the hole we came in through. The next tube was the longest. Again we climbed down the rocks and into the tube. This one had an awesome cathedral like ceiling where the lava pooled and swirled. This tube also attached to the longest one we got to visit. We walked through it for a few hundred meters back to the parking area. I would love to remember everything the guide said but there was just so much info, there was so much that happened over the last 190,000 years since the volcanoes eruption.
After the tour it was lunch time. We ate and then had a siesta before going on a hike. We made our way up the rocky hill to a group of huge rocks overlooking the lodge and camping area. We sat up there for a while enjoying the view before heading back to camp via the 100 Mile Swamp track. The swamp wasn't as wet as it is during the wet season and it was more like a clearing in the woods. A clearing that was a grazing haven to dozens of Eastern Grey Kangaroos. When we got back to camp we got into our box of goon and drank till we made our way over to the nightly campfire. Here one of the tour guides entertained us with stories and facts about local wildlife.