Atherton Tablelands

Well I finally made it up to Atherton today and it hasn't stopped raining for two months so the locals tell me. Due to my dodgy rear tyre I made the decision to take my time from Karumba across to Atherton.

It's a public holiday in Qld so my Spyder will get serviced tomorrow consequently I have booked into a cabin until Thursday morning. I was going to venture up to cook town, however I am told that the roads are not that good after an exceptional amount of rain. So I will turn towards Cairns I expect to be home in about 10 days. After I left Krumba I stopped overnight In a very small town, if you could call it a town, a railway station, a pub and a service station, oh wait that sounds like Howard, in fact Howard doesn't have a servo.

Sorry of the track there, the town is called Mount Surprise, I stayed in the local pub, there was a young girl in her 20's that ran the bar she was on her own, apparently her mother owned the pub, she was very efficient and when I said I was hungry she offered to cook me lunch, very good service so if you are ever out that way call in for a beer. I love these old country pubs and sometimes it is worth wandering down to the bar in the evening to have a chat you can learn a lot about an area from it's locals.

The next day I set off early and decided to camp overnight at the Undara Volcanic National park, It was warm and dry so i pitched my tent there at a charge of 10 dollars for the night, the road into the NP camp grounds is sealed and the Lava tubes are worth visiting.

Keep in mind however that you cannot visit the tubes without a guide as apparently some of the tubes are very dangerous, and the NP ranger will fine you seven thousand dollars if found in the restricted area. There are various escorted cave visits from two hours to all day visits.

To really do the area justice you would need at least 5 days as there are also some excellent self guided walks that you can do as well which start and terminate at the campgrounds. For those who don't like roughing it there are cabins and on site canvas lodges available all at reasonable prices.