Today we drove into the beautiful rainforests of North Queensland. We stopped at the Millstream Falls then at Mt. Hypipamee NP (photo). Here there is an amazing crater formed by gas explosion (not lava). It is a 60m diameter hole in the ground. Water is approximately 60m below the rim of the crater; and they say the hole goes at least another 120m down, turns a corner into the unknown. It was amazing to look at. We stopped for lunch at Atherton, then caught the...

Today we went for a tour of the Lava Tubes in the Undara Volcanic NP. The National Park is only accessible by guided tour due to the dangers of confined spaces and CO2 in the tubes. The lava tubes are interesting and it was worth the trip to see them; However the Undara resort which is just outside the NP is very commercial. The dusty, uneven, unpowered campsite was $38pn and the facilities are very old. They do not allow you to collect firewood although you can ...

We camped at Normanton last night in a great caravan park with a 25m pool and an artesian hot spa. The kids made friends with a family from Belgian who are traveling from Sydney to Darwin. Today we drove up to Karumba, to see the Gulf of Carpentaria. The Muttonhole wetlands and the Norman River are full of birdlife. We saw numerous brolgas, jabirus, pelicans and egrets, as well as eagles, hawks and smaller birds. I tried in vain to get a good photograph of a b...

After leaving Mt. Isa we drove to the site of the Mary Kathleen Uranium mine (photo). The town was auctioned off in 1984 and all that is left is bitumen roads and concrete slabs. We walked right around the open cut mine - The water in the bottom was an amazing bright blue. We then drove up to Normanton and the boys enjoyed a swim in the Caravan Park swimming pool and Artesian hot water spa.

We have the spent the past 2 days at Mt. Isa. Yesterday we visited the Mt. Isa Museum, the Riversleigh Fossil centre and the lookout (photo). The town is so close to the mine. It does look rather dirty during the day. We also drive out to Moondarra dam and just missed the subset. Grandpa Verne joined us for dinner - it was nice to hear his mining stories while here in Mt. Isa. Today we went on an underground mine tour - it was great. The 'hard times' mine that ...