Millaa Millaa to Undara Volcano National Park.

Day dawns clear and cool. Quick breakfast, pack the bike and off we go. Back down the Kennedy Highway past Ravenshoe and farewell to the Atherton Tablelands as the country flattens out and becomes drier. The vegetation starts to look like the typical savannah grass and low open forest.

Not far to Undara NP – about 170 km all up. Get there before lunch, set up camp and book a tour for later in the afternoon.

While visiting the shop for some lunchtime supplies, I notice a ancient battered and dust covered motorcycle leaning against a tree, being worked on by an equally battered and dusty individual. I know immediately who it is.

In Cooktown, I'd encountered Bruce & Tony on their way home from a motorcycle rally held up on Cape York. During our evening conversation, they had told me of the many interesting characters and their bikes that turn up at these rallies. On of the characters they had told me about was Claude and his 1950 Matchless twin. Apparently the bike looked as though nothing had been touched on it for 50 years and it was being held together with spit and wire. It was unmistakeably the same machine. Claude & I agree to catch up later for a beer & a yarn.

Tour to lava tubes is interesting if tightly controlled. Qld National Parks only allow licensed guides to take people to see these remarkable features. Tubes and their remnants run for kilometres all over this area. From the air they look like green ribbons as they support denser forest due to their capturing water run off.

Back to camp and down to the bistro for a beer with Claude and an excellent vegetarian curry. Also spent time chatting to three Americans from Montana. Two sons taking their father for a tour up the east coast of Australia. A pleasant evening concluded with catching up with this blog.

Tomorrow will do drive to Kalkani Crater in the NP, where you are allowed a self guided tour. Afterwards back on to the Savannah Highway and meet up with M & U before we press on towards Normanton & the Gulf.