We are moving westward now on the Savannah Way. The road, boastfully called "Highway 1", consists of a slim lane of bitumen in it's middle and a whole lot of red dirt on either side. 
When a car comes towards you there is not much use of standing your ground and “playing chicken”, as both cars eventually have to hit the dirt to avoid collision.
Turning off to the Undara Experience Caravan Park we managed our first 10km of dirt road towing the caravan. The park is laying within a huge cattle ranges owned by the Collins family for 150 years. After the discovery of the so-called "lava tubes" on their land it has grown to a major North Queensland tourist attraction.
Before joining the Lava Tube Tour which is the only way to access the privately owned land, we decided to walk to and around the Kalkani crater. From the crater rim we had sweeping views over the many volcano cones and craters in the ensuing landscape. The Kalkani crater itself is filled with medium size trees which are frequented by black cockatoos, butterflies and lizards. (we stole this photo from the web)
The Undara Lava Tubes are basalt tunnels and were created by the slowing flow of lava from 164 craters of the McBride Plateau. As the lava toe was slowly extending, it’s surface cooled and solidified building a tunnel while the hot inner stream moved through it’s centre. Some areas of the tube’s roofs are quite fragile and have collapsed, others extend up to 160 kilometres under ground.
Apart from a variety of birds we also met a couple of these cute little lizards on our way. 
Continuing on to Mt. Surprise we couldn’t find much apart from a service station and a friendly caravan park called “Bedrock". Oh wait! Austin found the local “KFC”!
Our next excursion took us on a side road to Forsayth, a former gold and copper mining town and the terminus of the Cairns to Forsayth Savannahlander Train. Here we once again left the caravan behind and made our way through a 1284 sq km cattle station of the Terry family to the Cobbold Gorge Village. 
We stayed over night in one of the corrugated iron cabins acquired from Sydney after the 2000 Olympics. The village is a true oasis within the outback. An infinity pool, restaurant/bar next to a dam are frequented by visitors of the gorge, and pale- headed rosellas.
The gorge itself is just wide enough for a slim punt to squeeze through. The polished rock faces show how torrents of water have gushed from side to side to carve out a passage. Lizards, snakes and a couple of freshwater crocodiles (see above) looked at us in bewilderment as we passed by quietly on the
Walking on rocks above the gorge almost disappears from view, and a little further on we stumbled onto the old horse and carriage road from the gold rush times. Graves along the way tell stories of violence between white prospectors, local aboriginals and Chinese traders.
We loved it at Cobbold Gorge and could have used the available paddle boards to calmly steer ourselves through the winding chasm, but opted instead for a cooling swim in the pool, before heading back to Forsayth. Temperatures were 33 degrees and climbing!
We were not the only ones in need of cooling off.