Undara Lavatubes and Cairns

Written by Nadine Zangerle on 27 April 2012. Posted in Australia

Suddenly we were surrounded by a crazy noise – sounding like angry housewives. Flying above us where hundreds of red-tailed-black Cockatoos. It was fascinating and we took so many pictures.

On the way to Cairns we stopped at Mt. Surprise at the Undara Volcanic Park. 200 000 years ago an eruption created a geological phenomenon. Over 300 lava tunnels made from one volcano with the longest of about 1.5 km (all in all 100 km which is the longest flow from a single volcano world wide).

This would have been something for Ursel, just mind-blowing. The best parts where the flooded tubes where you walked through thigh deep water.

Later we took a refreshing bath in the Lake Eacham – free from crocodiles. At Cairns we stayed at a campground so let’s have a nice shower first. And finally we can put some reports and pics online.

After Cairns we are heading to Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation.

Devils Marbles - Mt. Isa

Written by Nadine Zangerle on 21 April 2012. Posted in Australia

On the way to Mt. Isa we stopped at giant round rocks called Devil’s Marbles. They looked like marbles of the goods.

At Mt. Isa we did the hard mine tour and 10m below surface we experienced mining work. Our guide had been working in the Mt. Isa’s mines the last 30 years and gave us interesting background information.

Mining back than was a tough job with all this heavy machinery. Some trucks killed many miners so the safety standards today are very high. The trucks and cars even have AC and Audio system. Back in the 70s and 80s one person did digging, drilling, explosives and excavation. Today each job is done only by one person.

In Mt. Isa they have a lot of fly in fly out jobs in the mining area since there are not enough people. A miner gets AUS $ 1500 per shift (12 hours), working 4 days, havin 4 days off. Or they are working 4 weeks in a row and 4 weeks off. Moneywise it doesn’t sound too bad. Still I wouldn’t like to be underground the whole day.

Kings Canyon and MacDonnell Ranges

Written by Nadine Zangerle on 17 April 2012. Posted in Australia

The trek around the Kings Canyon brought us to a beautiful lush garden called Garden Eden – a billabong with big trees.

Afterwards we stopped in Alice Springs for shopping and went off to the MacDonnell Ranges. On our trip into the mountains we met a nice family, had good barbecue together and got some great advices.

In the West MacDonnell Ranges we had quite an adventurous trek. We had to get our backpacks above our heads and waded through chest high water. Luckily our camera equipment stayed dry.

Since we where waiting for a camera lens we had ordered at Anke’s place, which haven’t arrived in time, we headed back to the Alice Springs post office. But it wasn’t here yet so we had another wonderful day in the East MacDonnell Ranges.

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