It had rained all night, it continued raining until well into the afternoon.
In the morning I did the lava tube tour. Lava tubes are caves that were created as the result of a magma eruption which to 10 to 15 years. The eruption was caused by the stretching of Australia. At this point the crust of the earth became thin enough for the magma to force its way to the surface. There the magma formed a river of hot liquid stone. The surface of this slow streaming river cooled off and formed basalt, the magma continued to flow underneath the hard cover. The bottom of the magma river became so hot that it melted so the river eroded its riverbed away into wide tunnels. When the lava eruption finally stopped, the magma continued streaming and left empty tunnels. In this particular area there are tunnels that are 160 km long. These days the roof of the tunnels is collapsed in many places by a combination of erosion and earthquakes. The tour passed through three different sections of these tunnels.
There are several volcano craters in the area, in good weather conditions clearly visible, this day only vaguely visible. I walked to the rim of one of these vulcanos in the pouring rain. Regrettably no photos, it was just too wet.
In this area there is savannah, grassland with open forest and what is called dry rain forest. A strange name indeed. The area receives little rain, only a fraction of what wet rain forest receives. The dry rain forest only grows on the basalt areas and then specifically on the collapsed roofs. Apparently the basalt holds on to enough water for the dry rain forest to survive. However, if it disappears for instance as result of a bush fire, it does not recover.
After the tour and volcano walk I left to travel north, in one or two days to Port Douglas. After some shopping in Mount Garnet in one of these very general stores and a quick look at my e-mail I left the bitumen again and took back roads through the Great Dividing Range. Underway to Irvinebank, an old mining town, I traveled over Mount Misery and found a really great spot for a bush camp with a view over the valleys to the west. Mount misery is 1074 meters high, my campspot is 20 meters below the top.
