Monday 25th June - Tuesday 26th June 2012 Tinaroo - Atherton - Chillagoe

After chilling out at Lake Tinaroo for a few nights we left and explored Atherton. It's a beautiful area with lots of tropical rainforests. Our first stop was at Mt Hypipamee Crater. It was formed millions of years ago in a volcanic eruption. It was a short walk to see the crater and waterfall. It was a huge drop down into the crater from the viewing platform. It was quite spectacular to look at. The photos may not reflect how high up we were looking down into the crater. It had a covering of green duck weed but apparently fish live there.

There was a loop walk down to the crater and on the way back there was a pretty cascading waterfall.

We then went for a drive to the Gallo Dairyland. They make their own cheese and chocolates - 2 of my favourite food groups! Unfortunately they were not making cheese when we were there but they were putting the finishing touches to some chocolates. We all had a taste test of the cheeses - very nice. We liked them all (what a surprise!) so we bought some of their camenbert and a swiss style cheese called 'Seven Sisters.' We had a little taste of their chocolate and the kids got some to takeaway. It is a working dairy so as we were leaving the smell of cow shit was in the air as all the cows were coming into to be fed and milked. We didn't stay for the big event as the smell was soooooo bad! Thank god I don't work there!!!

Next we wound our way back into Atherton and after a spot of food shopping we headed out to see another National Park, Granite National Park. It was full of granite boulder which they wanted us to pay to look at! We come from WA - it's not like we haven't seen granite before! We had a quick bite to eat and headed towards Chillagoe to explore the caves there. 

We stayed at the caravan park that night ready to hit the caves the next day. We found out that it was going to cost us $70 per cave to see (there are 4 caves) so we decided instead to explore the 3 self guided caves.

We got up early the next day, collected our maps from the visitor centre and hit the road. The first 2 caves (Pompeii and Bauhinia) were co-located and it was a short walk from the carpark. Our first stop was the Pompeii Cave. It was a short steep walk into the cave. It wasn't very big so it was easy to explore. The main feature of the cave was a flow stone on one side of the cave. There were also lots of spiders but no bats to see unfortunately!

We couldn't access Bauhinia Cave safely without ropes so we decided to walk to the Balancing Rock. Its a short walk up to see this rock which is balanced upright oo top of another rock. Pretty good sight to see!

Charlotte and the Balancing Rock

We then hoped into the car and took a short drive out to 'The Archways' Cave. It was classed as easy to explore and we all had fun exploring it at our leisure. It had loads of tunnels and smaller caves inside to explore. One small opening revealed a crystalised flow stone which the kids loved. They also loved the fact that neither Ed or I could fit through the opening! We also saw lots of bats hiding in little crevices in the caves. We were there for quite a while exploring to the kids delight. We also saw some lovely Aboriginal Art on some of the cave walls in one section of the cave. 

Charlotte and Olivia in the narrow cave

Aboriginal Art at 'The Archways'

After exploring this cave we had a late lunch back at the caravan park and Ed & I took the opportunity to shower!

We spent the afternoon driving towards Undara. We camped along the side of the road not far from Undara.